How low we've sunk, when the Home Office is caught issuing deceitful propaganda in a TV and radio campaign.
In a withering ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority bans the offending advertisement for its hugely misleading claim, repeated in Labour election literature, that 'neighbourhood' police spend 80 per cent of their time on the beat.
At best, this is contemptible spin, since the average officer spends just one hour in eight on the beat. At worst, it's a lie.
Policing pledge: The Advertising Standards Authority has banned the advert for its misleading claim about bobbies on the beat
But then isn't this all part of the casual mendacity in public life that we've grown used to under New Labour?
Take the Budget, in which Alistair Darling claimed he'd already found £20billion of 'efficiency savings' in the public sector.
As the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests, this is sheer fantasy.
If these vast sums are really being wasted, why haven't they been saved sooner? And how can reducing waste be presented as a spending cut, when the money saved is to be spent elsewhere?
Underlying this charade is the biggest lie of all: that the cuts needed to pay off our mountainous debts won't affect frontline services.
Really? Are ministers seriously telling us that departments such as defence and transport can withstand cuts of some 25 per cent each, with no consequences for our men in the field or the country's road and rail networks? Just how gullible do they think British voters are?
This week began with the squalid spectacle of former Cabinet members trying to abuse public service for private gain. Now it ends in a farrago of deceit.
All in all, another dismal week for integrity in British public life.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1261090/No-room-voters-European-Empire.html#ixzz0jMnKPZ1r
