The Tory defence minister Michael Fallon put on an absolutely woeful performance on the Marr Show on Sunday May 14th. He evaded questions, he made unfunded spending pledges, he revealed the latest Tory flagship policy to be just a load of empty spin, he resorted to the worst kind of dishonest gutter politics, and he outright lied to the British public about Tory cuts to the armed forces.
Fallon's lie
Fallon told his outrageous lie in order avoid admitting that the Tories broke their 2015 manifesto pledge that they would stop slashing away at the armed forces.
The manifesto commitment Andrew Marr tried to get Fallon to admit was "we will maintain the size of the regular armed services and not reduce the army to below 82,000" [source - page 77].
Since 2015 the Tories have reduced the army to 79,000.
The sneaky and evasive Fallon saw the trap coming and outright lied that the commitment was to increase the size of the army to 82,000 by 2020, rather than to not cut it to below 82,000. Just look at how brazenly he lies.
Here's what the Tory manifesto actually said.Michael Fallon telling an outright lie about the Tory 2015 manifesto pledge that they would stop slashing the size of the regular army. pic.twitter.com/f1fEqpKLEF— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) May 14, 2017
Anyone would think that such a huge and obvious lie from a government minister would have completely dominated the news agenda, especially given the scrutiny Labour politicians are subjected to for stuff like getting their numbers muddled up. But no! Hardly anyone in the mainstream press even picked up on the fact that the Tory defence minister told the British public outright lies about defence policy.
Witness the way Fallon squirmed and lied, and maintained the fiction that the manifesto pledge was something else, even after Andrew Marr actually quoted it to him.Look how he kept digging despite having the truth literally quote at him. pic.twitter.com/hw6JWWE46t— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) May 14, 2017
Just imagine the level of arrogant contempt necessary in order to carry on lying to the British public when you've had the truth actually directly quoted at you, and them. Everyone could see that he was lying, but he just carried on. It's excruciating to think that this guy is actually responsible for the British armed forces.
It's absolutely beyond me how anyone could have confidence in him to continue as defence secretary after such a brazen display of dishonesty. But then there are a lot of S*n, Daily Mail and Express readers out there aren't there?
More lamentable rubbish
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| Infographic on Fallon's dodgy expenses by Rachael Swindon. |
When asked to explain where the government would find an extra £1 billion in their military funding pledge, he claimed that they'd do it "by growing the economy". When asked about the £7 billion black hole in the defence equipment budget Fallon replied by claiming that the government could raise the cash by selling off "some airfields".
So the mainstream media accuse Labour of "magic money tree" thinking over their fully-costed manifesto pledges, but Fallon can just reply with ridiculous platitudes about where the Tories are going to fund their manifesto commitments and resolve their own financial blundering, and nobody gives a damn.
Fallon repeatedly evaded answering questions about whether the UK's nuclear submarines are reliant on the outdated Windows XP operating system that is susceptible to hacks like the WannaCry ransomware attack that just hit the NHS.
Fallon admitted that the Tories flashy new policy on council houses is just empty spin, with no new money to commit whatever.
When Fallon tried to smear Jeremy Corbyn for talking to the IRA (at the same time as Margaret "we don't negotiate with terrorists" Thatcher was having her secret negotiations with the IRA) the Labour shadow defence minister Emily Thornberry hit him with the best sucker punch of the 2017 General Election campaign by highlighting his history of sucking up to the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad.
Conclusion
The Tory defence minister outright lied to the British public about defence policy and he made an arse out of himself over and over again, yet millions will still vote Tory, and for this guy to keep slashing the armed forces, lying to the British public, botching army recruitment, farcically mismanaging the defence equipment budget, and now apparently selling off a load of our airfields on the cheap to whoever wants to stump up the cash (Saudi Arabia? Qatar? China?).
I guess having a blatantly incompetent and massively over-promoted buffoon in charge of our armed forces just a continuation of a longstanding British tradition though isn't it?
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