This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.
We in the media aren’t very well respected or trusted.
This year’s Ipsos Veracity Index said that just 21% of voters in the UK would trust journalists to tell the truth.
It sticks in the craw that the people of Britain think we’re less truthful than estate agents, but at least we’re slightly ahead of politicians, government ministers, and advertising executives.
Even if only marginally, a win’s a win.
The gap between the top of the table and what I hope is not a relegation zone, is staggering.
Nurses remain the most trusted profession in the UK, with 88% of people trusting them to tell the truth.
Airline pilots are second, and librarians third.
Maybe it’s because we’re trusted so little that politicians feel comfortable lying to us.
It’s been a big year for lies. A vintage year, even. I'll focus on just two.
Over the weekend, former Tory peer Michelle Mone became the latest to admit to just making stuff up.
She appeared on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg to say she had told porkies about her relationship with a controversial firm providing PPE during the pandemic.
It was always going to be a tough interview, but she came away to find herself being compared to Prince Andrew, a sure sign that her PR strategy needs work.
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Boldly, Mone said she and husband Doug Barrowman had “nothing to hide” and weren’t “trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes”.
They showed that they had nothing to hide by repeatedly denying any link to PPE Medpro.
They showed they weren’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes by sending legal letters to any journalists who suggested there might have been a link.
A few days after it was set up in May 2020, the firm won a £122m contract for 25m surgical gowns and an £80.8m contract for 210m facemasks.
The company made a 30% profit from the contract, bringing in around £60m for Mr Barrowman – who is a resident of the Isle of Man, a tax haven.
The gowns were not fit for purpose, and the UK Government is now looking to get its money back.
Mone told Kuenssberg that she had personal reasons for lying.
“I should have said I am involved straight away, but I didn't want the press intrusion for my family. My family have gone through hell with the media over my career, and I didn't want another big hoo-ha,” she said.
Viewers in Scotland will be familiar with that line.
It’s what we in the business now call the Matheson defence.
You’ll remember that he told MSPs that he discovered his eyewatering data roaming bill had been run up by boys watching football during a family trip to Morrocco at the start of the year.
He claimed he learned about their use of his parliamentary iPad on Thursday 9 November, following days of media scrutiny over the staggering expenses claim.
However, on Monday 13 November, when asked directly if there was “any personal use” of the device during the family holiday, he told reporters: “No”.
When asked if anyone else could have used the device, he, again, said, “No”.
His reason for lying?
“As a parent, I wanted to protect my family,” he told MSPs in that emotional Holyrood statement last month.
Sure, there’s a world of difference between his £11,000 bill and £60m worth of profit partly off the back of some allegedly dodgy PPE, but still, after all the Boris Johnson mistruths last year, it’s a bit grim that this is where we are.
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Yes, as Mone pointed out, lying to the press is “not a crime.”
And I do get that our low ranking on the veracity list is not entirely undeserved.
And I’m sorry if I sound like a roaster with an over-inflated sense of self-importance here, but if you’re a politician lying to the media, you’re lying to the public.
Hopefully, there’ll be fewer lies in 2024.
Or at least when they get found out, people will be honest about why they lied and not try to claim it came from some sort of kind-hearted protective instinct for their kids.
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