Would the Tories rather look stupid than quote facts showing they’re wrong?

This is her “I’ve been caught out again” face [Image: Carl Court/Getty Images.]

Newsnight presenter Evan Davis put up an interesting tweet yesterday.

In it, he said his researcher was leaving for a proper job – and the first thing This Writer thought was, “Perhaps they’ve gone to be a researcher for Theresa May.”

That’s not because of the lamentable political collusion between the nation’s broadcaster and the Conservative Party (for a change).

It’s because I was thinking the Tories badly need to do their homework – on any current political issue.

Look at their recent history of goofs, gaffes and howlers.

Both Theresa May and Sajid Javid have claimed Tory policies have reduced homelessness – in fact, the Tories have made the problem worse.

The Tories claimed £45 million of new investment would improve child literacy – forgetting that they were responsible for worsening it, having cut funding by £2.7 billion.

Mrs May has refused to accept that the NHS is facing a crisis this winter, saying it was better prepared than ever. In fact, funding cuts have left patients waiting hours for ambulances – some dying during the wait, ambulances queuing at hospitals because A&E departments are overloaded – with nurses treating some people inside the vehicles, patients asked to lie on hospital floors (or sit in chairs, as one Tory minister suggested in moment of sociopathic arrogance) as hospitals suffer total bed occupancy.

In response to the issue of bed occupancy, Mrs May claimed the delayed discharges (that contribute hugely to the problem) were falling. In fact, they are on the rise.

Toby Young was appointed to the university regulator the Office for Students – sparking outrage over tens of thousands of misogynistic tweets and other outrageous behaviour.

Mrs May appointed to her Cabinet, or retained in it, MPs who are hugely inappropriate for their jobs, including Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, David Lidington, James Cleverly, Ben Bradley, David Gauke, Alun Cairns, Maria Caulfield, Brandon Lewis and – worst of all – Esther McVey, who deserved an article all to herself on This Site because the list of her abominations is so long.

Mrs May broke the Ministerial Code, using government property for party political promotional purposes.

She even gave Jeremy Corbyn an easy win in Prime Minister’s Questions, when she passed comment on Angela Rayner’s absence, only to be told the shadow Education Secretary was away receiving medical treatment – a huge own-goal when healthcare is the subject of heated debate.

All of these blunders could have been avoided, if the Tories had bothered to do their homework (although it is possible she may have had a hard time with the Cabinet appointments, as it may be hard to find any Conservative MP who does not have at least one black mark against their name).

But then another thought occurred to me:

Perhaps it is easier for the Tories to say the wrong thing and be ridiculed after the event, than to have the facts at their fingertips and have to admit they are wrong in their facts or (worse) their policies.


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5 Comments

  1. rotzeichen January 11, 2018 at 9:53 pm - Reply

    The Tory agenda is to asset strip the state and to privatise all its public services, they are very near the end of achieving that and simply don’t care anymore what anyone thinks.

    They have lied from the outset, after all Michael Portillo admitted exactly that a long time ago sat on the couch with Andrew Neil, saying that if they told people what they were actually doing, no one would ever vote for them.

    Nice to see so many Tories finally handing their membership cards back though, even they have begun to wake up.

    • NMac January 12, 2018 at 11:03 am - Reply

      Spot on “rotzeichen”. Let’s hope it isn’t too late.

  2. Brian January 11, 2018 at 10:59 pm - Reply

    Perhaps it is easier for the Tories to say the wrong thing and be ridiculed after the event, than to have the facts at their fingertips and have to admit they are wrong in their facts or (worse) their policies.

    Nail & Head.

  3. Rupert MItchell January 12, 2018 at 8:03 am - Reply

    The top priority for the Tories is to somehow cling on to power so that they can continue to run the country for themselves and their greed instead of for everyone. Their arrogance and ignorance knows no bounds and they seem to think that anything which comes out of their mouths will be believed.

  4. Ron January 12, 2018 at 9:30 pm - Reply

    This as got to be worst Government in living memory – far more diabolical then Thatcher’s

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