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Opinion | From Boris Johnson to Donald Trump, leaders who habitually lie win votes by giving people the lies they want
- The rising political fortunes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson – not to mention the US president, all of whom are no stranger to misleading voters – can only be understood as a product of our times
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Electors the world over are happy to vote for a political leader who habitually lies, as long as the whoppers they tell play to our own prejudices. We don’t want any old lies – we want our lies.
In Britain, European election results late last month catapulted Nigel Farage’s months-old Brexit Party to No 1, shortening both the timeline and the odds for Theresa May’s likely replacement as prime minister.
Farage, the so-called anti-politician politician, who hates politics so much he’s stayed in it for 20 years, disparages, divides and maligns, using smoke, mirrors and deceit. Farage is but an amateur, though, more misleader than liar, when compared to Britain’s apparent prime minister in waiting, Boris Johnson.
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In the race to succeed May as Conservative Party leader, Johnson is the favourite not only of the bookmakers but also of the people – well, the Conservative Party’s grass-roots members who will get the final say, after the members of parliament narrow the field by voting through their top two choices.
Johnson’s dishonesty provoked crowdfunded private prosecution proceedings which accuse him of intentionally misleading voters during the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016. But he’s been habitually lying since long before Donald Trump bluffed his way to the White House.
Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn sits precariously on the Brexit fence, with Leavers and Remainers soliciting his support on either side. In a delicate performance, Corbyn’s two faces each smile in opposing directions.
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