Donald Trump's first State of the Union since returning to the White House was one for the history books. At one hour and 47 minutes, it was the longest ever delivered. You might call it the bigliest.
For reporters on fact-checking duty, it was a marathon. Many of the president's claims – that "we have more people working today than ever before in the history of our country"; that the US has secured "$18 trillion" in foreign investment; that he inherited from Joe Biden "inflation at record levels" – proved to be fantastical exaggerations, imploding on contact with reality.
Chris Blackhurst relished picking through the wreckage. In his analysis, headlined "Trump's 'golden age of America'… is anyone feeling it yet?", he put the president's boasts that the economy is "roaring like never before" to the test, asking whether any of it has reached the average American.
Trump claimed the price of eggs had fallen 60 per cent since he took office. "Yes, but," wrote Blackhurst, "his reasoning may be a little scrambled: this time last year, the cost of a dozen grade-A eggs hit around $8, an all-time average high… but after a severe bout of avian flu led to shortages."
When Trump said beef prices were coming down "significantly", it was what Joey Tribbiani in Friends might have called "a moo point". "Prices dropped slightly in January, having climbed 15 per cent in the months following Trump's inauguration. Ground beef, meanwhile, has just set a new record high…"
Someone else who might have benefited from a literal gobstopper this week was Reform's Zia Yusuf, the man who styles himself the "shadow home secretary".
In his first keynote speech as the party's treasury spokesperson, Yusuf outlined the policies he would pursue in power. Sean O'Grady asked: how bad could it actually be?
Reform's vision for Britain would curtail rights, enforce mass deportations through a new 'ICE' squad, and reshape the country in chilling ways: "Flags would proliferate; rights would not. The police and courts would be politicised. The BBC could disappear. The NHS would survive only as a minimal safety net. You might indeed be sacked for being disabled. Meanwhile, the wealthiest would enjoy a generous, low-tax regime…"
Say what you like about Nigel Farage's party, they do not shy away from saying the quiet part out loud. The same could be said of an unfortunate moment at the Baftas on Sunday night.
During the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, the N-word was shouted at two Black American actors – involuntarily, by John Davidson, a Tourette's sufferer whose life story was up for awards. But, wrote Ava Vidal, it was the public reaction that was most troubling.
She explained that the N-word, in the hierarchy of racial slurs, "carries serious weight, and sometimes you can't help but react emotionally to it. Like most Black people, I have been called it too many times to count. How I respond depends on which day you catch me on.
"But please can we also recognise that John Davidson will be absolutely mortified by his outburst? Involuntary tics do not indicate a person's true feelings and are not a reflection of their character."
For Kat Brown, the episode also showed that the BBC – which failed to cut the slur from its coverage – has learned nothing from its Glastonbury fiasco last year: "Sorry to bring the phrase 'risk assessment' into your day, but having worked at high-profile awards shows, I know the degree of clairvoyance that comes into planning, and it seems to have been woefully absent here. Davidson, despite being seated 40 rows back from the stage, had a microphone close to his seat…"
The official inquiry is set to be a right beeping beeeeep… Until next week.
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário