On Friday, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck tweeted a link to an article headlined “John McDonnell doesn’t seem to understand how government debt works“. The article claimed that McDonnell had failed to demonstrate an understanding of the way in which the ‘multiplier effect’ and ensuing tax revenues work when he was asked questions about it during an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil.
Tories on social media crowed.
The very next day, the programme was forced to tweet a corrected version of the article with a dramatically watered-down title:
“John McDonnell doesn’t tell the whole story on Labour’s borrowing plans“
Quite a difference – and an assertion so weak that it would not really merit an article, since McDonnell never at any point claimed he was telling the ‘whole story’, merely answering the specific questions that were put to him.
On Sunday, twenty-three renowned economists responded to Neil’s attempted challenge on the national debt and Labour’s plans to borrow (only) to invest – and their verdict was emphatic:
The economists point out that a large part of the debt repayments are paid by the government to itself, meaning that it is not genuinely an outgoing – and that what remains is ‘remarkably low’ in adverse economic circumstances – while pointing out that it would be much lower if the Tories had not created the slowest economic recovery on record.
Channel 4’s error – later replaced with an article so watered down as to be meaningless – was so gratefully seized on and spread by Tories desperate to divert attention from their government’s incompetence that it became firmly established as fake news. The Labour Party agreed, with a spokesperson telling FactCheck:
As this article clearly states, John McDonnell was asked about the costs of servicing the debt on Labour’s borrowing for investment.
The accusation that John McDonnell was not telling the ‘whole story’ is entirely unfounded and inaccurate because he was not asked and did not discuss repaying the debt – a totally different question. It is clear that John McDonnell answered the question which he was asked truthfully and factually.
The repayment of principal is accounted for within Labour’s Fiscal Credibility Rule which mandates the next Labour government to reduce debt over the course of a Parliament.
It is ironic and deeply disappointing that a self-styled fact check blog is factually inaccurate and seems to have misunderstood the distinction between the costs of servicing government borrowing as opposed to the repayment of the principal.
The real story needs to be even more widely spread to counteract the damage and false perception created by the fake news.
The full economists’ statement can be downloaded here.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
How can Tories possibly change course? That would mean conceding that their god Thatcher & her god Hayek were full of shit – which they were.
That in turn would mean recognising that they and their austerity had not only failed to fix Thatcher’s crash but had made it worse – which they have.
We’ll be lucky if enough of an economy is left to kickstart a recovery by the time they throw up their hands and say, “You broke it, you fix it.”
And when we do fix it they’ll claim their austerity laid the groundwork for our success.
Not saying we’re all heroes – but they’re definitely all donkeys.
You make the key point of the debate, David.
We know that borrowing to invest wisely is the route to growth.
The real question is will the Tories admit their economic policy for the last 35 years has been fatally flawed?
The answer to that question is of course no. Only by admitting their error and changing course immediately can we grow our economy. But the Tories will never admit their economic policy is unsound.
That is why the Tories are doomed as an electoral force.
Indeed, and they will stay doomed for some time to come, if not for good. Osborne will go down as the Chancellor who came closer than any other to destroying the UK economy. Tories will never again be able to claim you can’t trust Labour with the economy. Their redundancy is complete!
Reblogged this on Watershed 2017.
Because we have a largely right wing media, especially the BBC, they will not call the Tories to account and highlight the false accusations by the likes of C4. It is therefore up to every Labour MP or spokesperson, when they get the chance to appear on TV, to make a point of not letting false accusations go unchallenged.
“largely” I think you’re wrong there Jack. I would say “Completely”
Tory incompetence is astounding
Et tu, channel 4?
Mightily poor form, that. 🙁
Reblogged this on maisysabredavid.
For decades millions of voters have been taken in by propaganda promulgated through a rotten media – Thank goodnes we now
have alternative means of communication ;