Media reports no delays for trucks at Dover. Quite unlike the chaos of last month when we were in the single market. Time for the media to cheer up about the majority democratic decision of a great independent nation.
I first saw John Redwood's tweet shown above when it was re-tweeted by my own MP, which took it out of the context of the original author's regular tweeting on the greatness of Brexit.
But there is an important reflection to be had about the first two sentences of the tweet - the last we can recognise readily as containing various strands of opinion with which some will agree and some will not. But the first two sentences are about the truth of events, and so it matters whether or not they are actually true.
Literally, the sentences are true. At the date of the original tweet - 1st January 2021 - the huge queues of lorries on the motorway and at Manston in Kent had cleared. And at the end of the previous month there was chaos on the roads of Kent as lorries queued on the motorway and at Manston. And, yes, on the 1st January the UK had left the single market whereas on 31st December and before the UK was still in the single market and customs union.
But an implied connection between membership or otherwise of the single market and chaos or smooth running at the port of Dover is not true. The chaos in December was caused by the closure of the French border, and then by the insistence on negative COVID-19 tests as a condition before lorry drivers could cross from the UK to France.
Twitter, of course, of its nature, lends itself to this kind of abbreviated post, which does not tell the whole story; and one should not blame John Redwood excessively if his use of the medium incurs a fault that lies in the nature of the medium itself.
But John Redwood is a prominent Conservative MP, so his use of twitter is a political act. It does matter that an elected representative tells the truth. This is particularly the case as an elected representative posts to twitter in the expectation, not only that the original post will be seen, but also in the expectation that it will be re-tweeted by supporters and the "message" therefore passed on widely. And this separates the original tweet from any context provided by previous and succeeding tweets. It is unfortunate when a prominent elected representative posts in the way described above, though I do not expect John Redwood is any more at fault in this regard than many another politician or political commentator, and in all likelihood, and with some grounds, would defend the truth of his post.
Politicians have a particular responsibility to tell the truth because their words act as a lead to what others, and in particular those who follow them in their political sympathies, believe to be true. If they were singers these followers might be described as their fan base; as politicians they might instead be referred to as their power base. In the age of twitter, however, a political power base gains something of one characteristic of a fan base - it becomes a following that can be without its own thought or analysis. The responsibility of a politician to tell the truth in their use of twitter (other social media platforms are available, as the BBC would say) is therefore somewhat greater precisely because of the way in which it can influence others.
This is, in my view, the fundamental issue with Donald Trump's behaviour in the United States since the recent Presidential election, in which a new President, Joe Biden, was elected. Ever since that election Donald Trump has persisted in telling a lie to his power base, by way of social media platforms and public appearances, to claim that he was the winner of the election. An unthinking alliance of others has further promoted this lie; and the power base have bought in to it. With the events at the Capitol this week the dangers represented by that lie became vividly apparent - and, as far as Donald Trump's future is concerned, came home to roost.
Here in the UK it should perhaps act as a warning to our politicians and political commentators that, in their tweeting in particular, they take care to tell the truth.
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