The Rise Of Political Lying – a book review

“Why do we bother discussing the autobiographies of Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell anyway if we know they are liars?”, Peter Oborne would ask. His fascinating book analyses the development of political falsehood in modern Britain. Five years on and the Labour government has come full circle. Are the finding are still relevant?

The infamous art of political lying has always been present in the world of politics. However, Oborne argues that things have got worse since New Labour fought for power and eventually got elected into office. The political editor has worked extensively analysing governmental falsehood for Channel 4, the BBC, Evening Standard, most notably for the Spectator and recently for the Daily Mail. His recognized and well-established association with some right-wing movements puts the book in a very vulnerable position to criticize and question the unbiased approach to the phenomenon of political lying.

Indeed, if you want to, you can find few spicy bits like this vicious attack on New Labour:

“Over the past few years New Labour has smashed the established dividing line between truth and falsehood, and put another in its place. Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's two propaganda chiefs, have converted truth into an instrument of power. They have privatised the truth, rather as the Conservative Party took the utilities, telecoms and rail industries out of public ownership in the 1980s and 1990s. In an act of grand larceny, truth and falsehood have been removed from the public sphere, and put to the particular use of New Labour.” (p. 244)

However, for those who can move above this day-to-day political rhetoric, “The Rise of Political Lying” has many positive features that are seldom mentioned in other reviews and are definitely worth making yourself familiar with. It is something that neither the Guardian nor the Observer troubled themselves to look into. Without pejorative assumptions that the book's only aim is to attack the Labour government, the reading is much more enjoyable, less frustrating and offers a lot of unquestionable evidence of when, where, who, why and how lied.

With the book's concepts clearly defined, the author focuses readers' attention on the role of politicians and spin doctors leaving the importance of media to others, particularly John Lloyd’s “What the media are doing to Our Politics” (Constable and Robinson, 2004), and takes only a small bit for himself to make a point that seems to be quite clear.

“Today's media have taken on the role of Gladstone's shouters. But unlike them, they no longer seek to deliver the message from the politician directly. They interpret it, highlighting parts and omitting others. They rarely soften a politician's message. Instead they can brutalise it, cheapen, distort and sometimes falsify it.” (p. 252)

Oborne is inspired by political philosophy of Plato, Machiavelli and Strauss in order to observe and fully understand the development of lie in a political life. He also puts an emphasis on falsehood used by both ruling elites and the powerless to spot differences and understand them. Another important element of Oborne's analysis is the construction of lie and the function of the spin doctors who allegedly led New Labour to power.

What has changed since the book was first published? The increasingly important role of social networking allow politicians to contact voters directly and be more open for scrutiny. Also, the British electorate learned about the expenses scandal and finally tasted the experience of live TV debates. Critics could also complain that the book is “too British” - apart of mentioning the US political scene few times, Oborne does not analyse the rise of political lying anywhere else. This limitation narrows down his target group to the followers of politics around Downing Street, Whitehall and Westminster.

The book also offers quite universal and widely applicable ideas how to tackle falsehood in politics. Oborne mentions civic journalism, impartial system of checks and balances as well as sovereignty and political independence for public institutions. As an example of the latter, the author presents the case of Bank of England that achieved independence from political affairs thanks to Gordon Brown, former Chancellor of the Exchequer‎. Oborne also calls for a disinterested and fact-based analysis of political coverage (vide the case of Factcheck.org in the US presidential elections) and, what seems to be a more complex idea, to make political lying a crime.

The Guardian's review of the book
The Observer's review of the book
The book on the Amazon

Peter Oborne
The Rise of Political Lying
London: Free Press, 2005
317pp. ₤7.99
ISBN 0-7432-7560-8