Thoughts on fact checking

This may I’m afraid be a bit of a ramble. It seems that “independent” fact checking has become all the rage in politics today. The Electoral Reform Society has opined that official “facts ” should be published before any future referendum, and anyone disagreeing with them should be punished – presumably “so the oiks don’t win again“. The Clinton/Trump debate was also live “fact checked”, and many on line debates are “settled” by referring to fact checking sites. Now checking facts in debates is a good thing, I’d even go so far as to say that it’s a very good … Continue reading

It’s up to you and me

A sign of the times in that on the sad news of the tragic death of David Bowie his fans rather than having a whip round to build a statue and maybe having a memorial created by public subscription have instead started a petiton asking that Lambeth council spend other peoples money to do it on their behalf. Such great fans they are that they’re happy to spend other peoples money on commemorating their idol. I am rather a fan myself and if there was a collection might well chip in, but I do have to wonder what the late … Continue reading