Opinion: ‘Moment of truth when fictions end’

This past Sunday, the New York Times published a bombshell report about President Trump’s taxes, or lack thereof.

He apparently paid only $750 in income tax in 2017.

I don’t believe the average person who works at a checkout counter in the middle of America gets away with paying so little.

Trump took to the airwaves as soon as he could and denounced the report as “Fake News”.

However, I’ve looked at it. It appears to be a careful piece of reportage, cross-checked (insofar as is possible) against publicly available information. The emperor has no clothes, or rather, has a wisp of a tax bill. It’s there for all to see, or at least for those who are willing to see.

This has become almost a parable: that there comes a point when denunciations of the media are no longer effective, and the weight of facts is too great for fiction to bear. Those who continue to cling to those fictions look increasingly ridiculous, those who awoke to the swindle feel betrayed.

The parable has implications for the United Kingdom. Has the trade deal with the European Union proven to be one of the “easiest in history”? Was the Brexit deal that people voted for by installing Boris Johnson in office truly “oven ready”? Are we genuinely in the process of “levelling up” our country? Is the Union strong and united?

I know that among the most difficult words to utter in the English language are, “I was wrong”.

There are many who will go to ridiculous lengths not to say them. They will try to deny fact, science, logic and even common sense.

But as the evidence mounts and the power of fictions fade, things start to change. b

A recent poll suggested that Keir Starmer is the voters’ preferred Prime Minister. Johnson was in third, behind “Don’t Know”. No doubt the fans and acolytes of Johnson will want to say that he just needs a fair wind to recover his mojo.

He will find some words or phrases in Latin which will cast some sunshine on the dusty chambers of the House of Commons. I wouldn’t be too sure about that. We have had our period of fictions, hopes, and dreams for an easy path to a better future: instead we have found it tricky and serving along dangerous precipices.

The moment of truth has come and fictions will not help: if you have lost your job, or your family member had to go onto a ventilator due to Covid 19, being told that things are getting better sounds at best preposterous, at worst, callous.

The fictions that have plagued Peterborough may be dissolving more rapidly than in other parts of the United Kingdom.

I read a report over the weekend which indicated that there has been a 104% increase in the number of Covid 19 cases between September 17 and September 24. We are still a “Medium” risk area, but hoping beyond hope that somehow, something will turn up, as if there will be a needle full of vaccine in our collective Christmas stocking, seems irresponsible at this point.

I know the temptation for the Conservative administration both locally and nationally will be to try and serve up another dose of fictions, laced, no doubt, with words about the bulldog spirit.

Yet, fictions are no longer working for the most powerful man on the planet. They won’t work for a City Council either.