The course of history is being decided by a series of lies, and sometimes I have difficulty believing how this can be real.
This train of thought was, of course, started by a shrill whistle from Donald Trump – a man so mendacious that entire teams of journalists exist to fact-check him – whose current argument is that lying is the right thing to do.
It’s all about the revelation by legendary journalist Bob Woodward that Trump deliberately misled the public on the dangers of COVID-19.
In the 70s, when Watergate brought down a president, Woodward gained information from a shadowy figure in clandestine circumstances.
This time, he just asked the Moron-in-Chief questions and, despite knowing Woodward is one of the most famous investigative journalists in history, Trump gave him everything – on tape.
“It’s more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” said Trump on February 7.
But, later that month, he said the flu was more dangerous, describing COVID, which has now killed 200,000 Americans, as “very much under control”.
Trump says he was correct to lie because he wanted to avoid a public panic. I agree scaremongering is unwise, but he could have told the truth in measured tones, providing the leadership the U.S. has lacked since 2016.
Then there’s Boris Johnson, who suspended Parliament (well, the Queen did it on his flawed advice) last August and claimed it was procedural, but a month later the supreme court said that wasn’t true and Johnson had acted unlawfully.
There are plenty of other porky pies in his past, from being sacked by the Times for making up a quote to the ludicrous claim, in his Daily Telegraph column, the EU was monitoring the bendiness of bananas.
And don’t get me started on the side of that bus.
I have two rules in life: tell the truth and do the work.
They’re simple and effective, and I wish more of our leaders would use them, because their leadership informs the behaviour of those who follow them.
As long as we have leaders who lie, our trust in each other will be undermined.
Do better. We deserve better. History will judge these men harshly.
