Scotland’s future is on the line
This has been an election soured and scarred by lies and misinformation with journalists, many political commentators and voters saying they can’t remember one so marred by dirty tricks from politicians and the media.
The latest furore is over tweets by two political editors, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston, who both reported that an advisor to Health Minister Matt Hancock was punched by a Labour activist as he left Leeds General Hospital where a young child with suspected pneumonia had apparently been left lying on coats on the floor to await a bed. Matt Hancock himself also piled into the scrum, complaining in a Tweet of a “concerted attempt by Labour activists to intimidate me and my team.”
The punch story, apparently relayed to the journalists by senior Conservatives, was proven to be a lie when people on social media exposed the misinformation by posting video in which the Tory SPAD, not looking where he was going, walked into the hand of a gesticulating man wheeling a bike. No hordes of baying activists, no antagonism, no punch.
Misinformation isn’t confined to the senior levels of parties and spin doctors. The LibDems have long been notorious for their dodgy graphs in local election material, and in a leaflet distributed by Tory candidate John Lamont in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk he also plays the dodgy graph game with his leaflet showing the result of the 2015 general election when he lost to the SNP’s Calum Kerr by 328 votes, instead of the 2017 general election result when he won the seat with a very comfortable 11,060 majority. No prizes as to why he did that. He wants what appears a close race to spur his supporters to vote on Thursday.
So here are graphs with the actual result of the 2017 and 2015 elections. Lamont’s majority may appear to provide a comfortable cushion against losing his seat, but remember 2015. Winning by Calum Kerr is possible. People just need to get out and vote on Thursday, irrespective of the weather.
