Sharpe's Opinion

Fraser Nelson on the Lies of Ed Balls

Wow. Just wow. Earlier today, Fraser Nelson on Coffee House wrote a post about Ed Balls lying about debt on Radio 4. Ed Balls contacted him, it seems, in something of a fit of anger – demanding the original post be taken down. Instead, Fraser went ahead and wrote a full rebuttal of both Ed Balls’ lies and his dodgy scare tactics, culminating in this paragraph:

If you’re reading this, Ed (and I suspect you will be) then we have a serious point to make. Five years ago, you could lie like this on the radio and get away with it. Space is tight in newspapers, no one would devote hundreds of words and graphs – as we did – to expose a lie for what is. But the world has changed now. Blogging has brought new, hyper scrutiny. Blogs have infinite space, and people with endless energy, to expose political lying – no matter how small. Your claims can be instantly counter-checked, by anyone. If you stretch the truth, you can be exposed – by anyone. And if you plan to base a whole election campaign on a lie, as you apparently intend to do, then you’re in for a rude awakening.

Go read the whole post, it’s worth it.