Lets break the meme down
Note: We could expand all of these topics there's plenty of evidence available but in the interests of keeping things a reasonable size....
Lies
David Cameron rebuked by statistics watchdog over national debt claims – The PM said the government was ‘paying down Britain’s debts’ in a political broadcast, even though the debt is actually rising.
OBR head rebukes Osborne: the UK was never at risk of bankruptcy. Office for Budget Responsibility chief Robert Chote dismisses the Conservative “danger of insolvency” claim.
In the weeks after he took office, George Osborne justified his austerity programme by claiming that Britain was on “the brink of bankruptcy”. He told the Conservative conference in October 2010: “The good news is that we are in government after 13 years of a disastrous Labour administration that brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy.”
It was, of course, nonsense.
Misinformation
Iain Duncan Smith Rebuked Over Immigration Statistics – Iain Duncan Smith and the Department of Work and Pensions have been accused of publishing misleading immigration figures that were “highly vulnerable to misinterpretation”. Figures showing 371,000 immigrants were on benefits were rushed out by ministers with insufficient regard for “weaknesses” in the data, according to the UK Statistics Authority.
Grant Shapps rebuked by UK Statistics Authority for misrepresenting benefit figures – Yet another Conservative politician is caught making it up. Grant Shapps has joined his fellow Conservatives in the data hall of shame. In March, the Tory chairman claimed that “nearly a million people” (878,300) on incapacity benefit had dropped their claims, rather than face a new medical assessment for its successor, the employment and support allowance.
The figures, he said, “demonstrate how the welfare system was broken under Labour and why our reforms are so important”. The claim was faithfully reported by the Sunday Telegraph but as the UK Statistics Authority has now confirmed in its response to Labour MP Sheila Gilmore (see below), it was entirely fabricated.
Insulting
Mrs May replied: "In relation to the figures on council houses, he's wrong. We have delivered on the one for one replacement on the Right to Buy."Mrs May failed to back up her claim with any evidence.
Figures by her own government in March showed 49,573 homes had been sold off since 2012 but just 4,594 new ones had been started or bought on site.
The Prime Minister then mocked Mr Corbyn for his long-held tactic of asking Twitter followers for questions - so she read out one from 'Lewis'.
"Lewis writes: 'Does she know in a recent poll on who would make a better Prime Minister, 'don't know' scored higher than Jeremy Corbyn ?'".
Note: Interesting that Theresa May has the dubious accolade of answering less questions than Cameron now that's quite something. But always willing to throw insults to get away from answering a question.
94 Billion to big Corporations
Taxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year – a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK.
The total emerges from the first comprehensive account of what Britons give away to companies in grants, subsidies and tax breaks, published exclusively in the Guardian.
Many of the companies receiving the largest public grants over the past few years previously paid little or zero corporation tax, the analysis shows. They include some of the best-known names in Britain, such as Amazon, Ford and Nissan.
The Tory failure on the economy is increasingly clear for all to see. Osborne promised in 2010 to eliminate the structural deficit in five years and to preserve our AAA credit rating. He failed on both promises. His budget earlier this year revealed huge downgrades in estimates for future growth, wages, productivity and levels of investment. It also showed he was failing on two of the three targets he had set himself on welfare spending and debt. As the economy stalls, he looks increasingly likely to fail on his third target – the economically illiterate promise to run a surplus by 2020.
Fined a record £70,000
The Conservative Party has been fined a record £70,000 for breaking election expenses rules.
The party insists its failure to report six figure sums it spent on trying to win three by-elections and the general election was an "administrative error".
The Electoral Commission said there was a "realistic prospect" the money had given the party an advantage.
The Metropolitan Police is now looking at the evidence to see if the reporting omissions were deliberate.
"She (The Commission's chief executive Claire Bassett) added that having had to get a court order to get information was "very disappointing"."
BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg said that if prosecutions go ahead "we could be looking at by-elections".NOTE: That the fine could have been higher but they are restricted to £2,000 per offence. Which they are aiming to try and increase in the future.
Electoral Commission's findings...
- The Conservative Party’s 2015 UK Parliamentary general election spending return was missing payments worth at least £104,765.
- Separately, payments worth up to £118,124 were either not reported to the Commission or were incorrectly reported by the party.
- A portion of this amount should have been included in the Party’s return but wasn’t.
- Another portion was put into the Party’s return when it was candidate spending in a number of constituencies where the Party spent money promoting individual candidates.
- In addition, the Party did not include the required invoices or receipts for 81 payments to the value of £52,924.
- Finally, the Party failed to maintain records explaining the amounts it invoiced to candidates in three 2014 by-elections, for work on their campaigns.
- Therefore the accuracy of the amounts could not be verified.
Possible Criminal Charges
Twelve police forces have asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charges over election expenses.
Links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39289195
https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/a-list-of-official-rebukes-for-tory-lies
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/07/corporate-welfare-a-93bn-handshake
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2016/05/tories-dismal-economic-record-exposes-their-hollow-rhetoric
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/16/conservatives-fined-70000-mp-reported-police-following-investigation/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/14/conservative-mp-craig-mackinlay-interviewed-under-caution-over-election-spending
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-tories-are-certain-theyll-win-well-find-out/
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