Originally posted by zero lift
At last we can keep election lies in check
- Up to a point this is true but, like everything else, the devil is in the detail.
For instance......
In 2001 Labour lied about tuition fees
- Actually they did not.
The 2001 manifesto made it clear tuition fees would not be introduced in this Parliament and they have not been.
Paving legislation for their introduction in the next Parliament has been introduced and they will of course follow but there was no actual lie. Labour maintained it's manifesto committment.
Labour's claim that the Tories have a £35 billion cost-cutting agenda
- ....is 100% accurate from the figures and statements made so far.
The point is that this 'cost cutting agenda' is compared to Labour's projected spending plans.
(.....and at least Labour is prepared to tell people it's spending plans)
even playing an important role arbitrating in disputes, for example over the Swift Boat Veterans' campaign that cast doubt on Senator John Kerry's service in Vietnam.
- God save us from anything as disgraceful as that transparent synthetic fiasco.
The key strengths of FactCheck.org were rigour, clarity, transparency and, above all, impartiality.
- I guess I'm saying I applaud the attempt but these things are political and therefore rarely a matter of only being observable from one point of view.
There is no question that the IFS has brought a discipline to the economic statements made by politicians in the three decades since it was launched.
- You have got to be kidding me.
Do you really think economists have no personal political leanings?
Why shouldn't they have? They are people just like the rest of us.....
.....and some of the most outrageous and rabidly tory people I have ever met have been people 'from the city'.
British political culture has been poisoned.
- Sorry but I think this is just utopian nonsense.
Politics is a dirty business and a highly subjective one at that; all about an undefinable future 'we're gonna......' you can attempt to introduce rules and systems all you like but I think the effects will be marginal.
Measured and reasoned debates about the future of Britain have been impossible during general elections. Voters have been unable to reach proper judgments in the face of rival assertions from entrenched political machines.
- Like I say, I think this will always be so....
.....although when we look at track records the matter changes somewhat.
FactCheck can perform an immeasurable service to British democracy. It can force politicians and the media to focus on truthful and accurate claims.
- It will have 'an' effect but it will not IMO 'force' anything of anyone substantially.
Peter Oborne is the political editor of the Spectator.
- ......and Peter O. is pretty right-wing himself, how does he edit any bias he might unwittingly have demonstrated, hmmmm?
He is presenting a film on the general election for Channel 4's Dispatches to be screened on 25 April.
- Should be worth a look, his stuff is usually thought-provoking if nothing else.
) to do so. 
