This is how things are. It does not come from the Tories or people with certain political views. It was just as rife within the civil service when I was working there under Blair. It can be found at every level of society.
It has gone to an all new level.
Thatcher suppressed stuff and began the spin trend. Blair developed the spin side of things but didn’t outright lie. Even the Iraq dossier and justification was about going to considerable lengths to find a thin factual basis to justify the decision. Many of us said at the time that the consequences of the way we went into war were going to be worse and more far reaching than the actual casualties of the war itself, not just in the region but to our democracy and integrity.
But this lot. It’s been four years of brazen dishonourable behaviour. Our uncodified constitution worked only because there were standards of behaviour and the public shaming and ostracism from the upper tiers of society, power and money for those found to fall below those standards were a deterrent and severe punishment for our ambitious ruling class types, as the legal framework we can now see was never there. Now that these people don’t care anymore about the shame, are largely protected by media magnates with no class, plus the modern news cycle and internet fake news muddying the waters, the lack of legal recourse and repercussions becomes significant.
All that was then missing as a check was the public holding them to account. Instead, brexiters dispensed with critical thinking, lost sight of what was more important and rewarded deceit. This at least was forgivable as the media did a poor job of understanding Brexit and the EU and then holding the charlatans to account, so those voters who didn’t look in to a very complicated issue or allowed their instincts and nature to impede their better judgement were bound to get it wrong.
But those who continued to double down thereafter, while all the extra information, duplicity and understanding came out, who continued to give these people support and did not at least call for a confirmatory vote, well, this is on you and not excusable I’m afraid. These last four years of waiting for your supposed clever leaders to decide what it was that they told you to vote for, what you wanted, and then come up with the plan they should have already had - I mean who even does that! - while everything else, including preparing for a predicted pandemic, was put on hold, well it all stems from your myopic stupidity.
