Tale

It's quite alarming at times how the "narrative" of what's happening starts to get in the way of, say, the truth, or reality. Lots of people have commented before how press stories rely on articles that contribute to an expected pattern - the latest stage in some minor or major story that makes sense to the reader and does not jar them out of their torpid acceptance of what's told them.

But hilariously, the public sometimes make these things up for themselves.

Having watched with an inchoate horror as poll after poll affirmed that the British people were firmly behind Dave and George's deficit slashing mania (despite the lack of economic backing for it), I am entertained to find a poll in the fire-walled Times today suggests that 49% of the public think the deficit is Dave and George's fault.

Normally I'd be outraged by such a gross misrepresentation of the truth. But this time it's just making me laugh. For a start The Conservative members of the coalition have repeatedly talked down the economy, using the admittedly scary numbers involved in deficit calculations to terrify the voters into accepting their harsh medicine. Most of these statements have been reprehensible lies: continuous comparisons to Greece, for example, when most actual economists agree we have almost nothing in common with them. Talking down an economy is a very dangerous game to play, and when it's based on lies and deceit is pretty despicable. So the deficit might not be their fault, but they're playing fast and loose with it for their own agenda. Secondly, they've not stinted in their efforts to portray the debt as Brown and Labour's fault, despite the fact that Governments always emerge from recessions with big deficits (Thatcher and Major both did) and that this particular recession is widely believed to have been the worst since the Depression (so quite logical to expect a Big Debt). Given there's a considerable body of expert opinion (Nobel laureate Paul Kruger, for example) who believe that the Brown-led fiscal stimulus packages around the world saved us from another actual Depression, just smacking Gordo over the head and screeching "your fault!" is such a one-sided argument that it doesn't exist in the other two dimensions.

Blaming previous Governments for things is par for the course. The interesting thing is that the Coalition have sought to justify almost everything they have chosen to do in the name of opposing what Labour did. They don't have any kind of vision of for the country, or at least not one they actually dare tell us about.

Therefore it's kind of funny that the thing they are most trying to pin on Labour is now being blamed on them, even though they - by definition of "opposition" - had very little to do with it.

The most encouraging thing, however, having got used to the flow of 'narratives' is that the poll shows the public reading a different tale the one recently promoted. So they blame not the gold-plated public sector pensions and welfare layabouts as promoted by the Daily Mail, or the Labour politicians as suggested by the Tories. 74% of them are blaming the banks.

For once, at least, the narrative tale read by the public is a true story.