Spot The Difference

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010

Spot The Difference

Chart 1 - Bank of England inflation forecast February 2009

Chart 2 - Bank of England inflation forecast February 2010

Hmm... now let me see...

A year ago, just before the Bank fired up its £200bn printing press, they expected inflation to fall into the range 0-1% pa, with a significant risk of outright deflation (charts relate to Consumer Price Index - CPI).

Today, they have revised up their figures to reflect the fact that inflation is currently running at just under 3% pa, and far from falling, is heading higher. It seems that inflation has refused to die despite the demise of our dear old friend GDP growth.

Undaunted, the Bank reckons inflation will soon fall back again, with apparently still something like a 20% chance of outright deflation.

Yet we know that sterling commodity prices are up 19% year-on-year, and we know that producer output price inflation has already accelerated to 4%.

Hmmm...

I have a very bad feeling about this.

The Art Of Lying Big

"In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves... would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. 


Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying."

So said one of the foremost experts on lying*. For real impact and lasting effect, you have to lie big.

And boy, has Labour lied BIG. 

This morning brings the latest revelations concerning their Big Migration Lie. For years Labour told us that we needed mass immigration in order to make us richer. There was never any serious evidence to support the argument, but ministers routinely spouted it. It now seems that the economic case was always just a Big Lie, and their real reason for encouraging the influx was to irreversibly transform British culture and society. 

We've blogged this before (eg see here), but this morning MigrationWatch have released a smoking gun in the shape of previously unpublished sections from a government report in 2000. MigrationWatch's Sir Andrew Green says:

"...In the executive summary, six of eight references to ‘social’ objectives were cut from the version later published...


...It seems there was a project led by Downing Street political advisers to introduce a secret policy of mass immigration. Their economic arguments surfaced in an obscure research document but the social objective of greatly increased diversity was entirely suppressed for fear of public reaction – especially from the white working class.

... One point to consider is the impact on the electorate. It is not generally realised that Commonwealth citizens legally in Britain acquire the right to vote in general elections as soon as they put their names on the electoral register. In Labour years we have now seen an additional 300,000 from the Old Commonwealth and about one million from the New Commonwealth.


They may well have been conscious that they have much stronger support among the ethnic communities than their Conservative rivals. Given that mass immigration is heavily in Labour’s electoral interest, they may have thought that they could get away with it."

It's so outrageous, you just know it's true. An almost exact replay of the old economic snow job that took us into the EU: we were sold the EU on the basis that membership would make us richer, whereas in truth, the ruling elite wanted us in so they could be part of the new Superstate, continuing to enjoy a seat at that all-important top table.

And then there's the Great Global Warming Lie. As we've blogged many times, nobody seriously doubts the climate is changing - it changes all the time - but by promoting the unproven assertion that it's man/capitalism that's responsible for frying the planet, Labour has sought to validate its entire agenda of state control and high taxation. This is socialism disguised as saving the planet. 

Worse, even though much of this lie is now unravelling in the face of climategate and the dodgy IPCC reports, ministers and their supporters at the state broadcaster are still spouting the same old stuff as if nothing had happened. Just like good old Doc Goebbels advised, they're trying to spin the issue into one of dark forces seeking to extinguish the sacred torch of truth.

Of course, the Global Warming Lie pales into insignificance beside the damnable lies concocted to justify the Iraq War. In another performance straight out of the Doc's playbook, they justified an illegal war on the basis of the dodgiest of dodgy dossiers presented to us as being "beyond doubt".

But the important things about the Iraq lies is that they have come back to bite the perpetrators. The Major was immensely encouraged to see the odious spinmeister Campbell breaking down on the Andy Marr show. Confronted with the facts, Campbell slumped into embittered victimhood, losing any final shred of authority and credibility in the process. Or as the Major put it "they can dish it out, but they sure can't take it". 

Which is why we need to see much more of this. We need to see the Big Liars confronted and humiliated. We need our politicos to understand that Big Lies have big downsides. We simply can't afford another government like this one.

*Footnote Yes, you're quite right: it is indeed Hitler's Mein Kampf.