The Lie Detector

Chancellor Hammond is a liar.
 #Hippo #TheLieDetector #Sueme

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Chancellor Hammond lied on the BBC Radio Four Today programme, 28 July 2017.

He was defending his continuing policy of austerity and he could not stop himself asserting that Jeremy Corbyn somehow "admitted last week" that the Labour promise to remove student debt was a "con".

This was of course a lie.

If society values education, society must pay for it one way or another and when Hammond claims that the Tories have somehow magicked away that debt, by passing it on to a another generation, then there lies the confidence trick; it is a myth that the structural changes to financing college fees have a beneficial consequence on society in cash terms.

The confidence trick is not that Jeremy Corbyn is making an unachievable promise, but may be found in Hammond's language. Hammond claims that society cannot afford to pay student fees, or should not afford student fees in order to maintain austerity, ("fiscal discipline"). This is where the bullshit lies.

Bizarrely, Hammond also claimed he was "investing in skills" in order to address the different problem of lack of skills, post Brexit. This would be Hammond contradicting Hammond, Hammond being two faced. He did not bother to cost this pledge but was happy to cost the Labour pledge that had already been costed by Labour and looked at by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The Today programme failed to ask Hammond for his spreadsheet.

So, Hammond would have it that Corbyn's costed promise to invest in skills is fake and that his uncosted promise to invest in skills was not.

Mr Hammond, feel free to apologise to Jeremy Corbyn or sue me for calling you a liar.

Chancellor Hammond is a liar.
 #Hippo #TheLieDetector #Sueme

#studentloans #BBCbias