Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Splitting Brownies

We’re on the last couple of days for collecting entries for the Gordon Brown’s book of fibs, but we haven’t quite decided what to call his embellishments. Many of you say he lies, and we should call a lie by its name. But Brown normally operates by the misleading presentation of a real fact. Unemployment is at a 30-year low, for example, if you just look at claimant count and forget the 5m languishing on other benefits. (This is Brown’s “false proxy” technique, where he gives claimant count as a proxy for joblessness when this long ago ceased to be the case.) So are we talking about Fibs? Brownies? Porkies? Or, as one unkind soul suggested, McPorkies? Suggestions, please.

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