Find out how Full Fact has been making an impact

28 Jul 2023 | Full Fact's weekly news
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Dear Friend,

At Full Fact, our approach to fact checking isn’t just to ‘publish and pray’. We publish and act ([link removed]) to fight the spread of bad information. And we do so alongside thousands of Full Fact supporters.

So far this year, more than 12,500 of you sent messages to MPs asking them to uphold standards in politics. Thank you.

Together we’re making a difference. In June, following calls from Full Fact, a Conservative Peer corrected a claim about a former Prime Minister, we saw corrections from national newspapers and helped to change the way the Ministry of Justice records suicide rates.

We raised our concerns about the Home Office's use of statistics, cut through the confusion on NHS waiting lists, and investigated claims from Labour about the use of NHS pagers. Your support made all of this possible.

After years of us campaigning for improved media literacy in the UK, the Government introduced amendments to the Online Safety Bill to improve online media literacy. We were the only organisation campaigning for the Bill to include this. ([link removed])

But despite this success, the Online Safety Bill doesn’t do what we need it to do. It doesn’t go nearly far enough to tackle bad information or protect our freedom of expression.

Our work doesn’t stop here. While nearly 50,000 people have signed our petition to improve honesty in politics, out of the 41 MPs we have asked to correct themselves this year, only 7 have done so.

We will continue fighting to stop the spread of bad information. Thank you for your support.

Andrew Dudfield—Interim Chief Executive
Full Fact
Our recent impact ([link removed])
FACT CHECK
The UK government is not building a multimillion pound railway line in Turkey ([link removed])

Earlier this week Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tweeted a screenshot of a UK government press release with the headline “UK announces £680m for new high-speed electric railway in Turkey”.

Alongside the screenshot, Mr Burnham tweeted “So we can’t afford to keep our own ticket offices open - but we can afford to build a new line in Turkey?” A number of similar posts have also been shared on Facebook.

Mr Burnham’s suggestion that the UK is financing a new railway line in Turkey is misleading—the £680 million figure used in the government press release refers to a loan provided by three banks (J.P. Morgan, ING Bank and BNP Paribas) which has been underwritten by the UK government’s export credit agency.

It is not money being directly invested in the project by the UK government. The Italian and Austrian export credit agencies are also providing reinsurance.

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This is a full time, 6 month fixed term, remote first role, with an office available in Central London and regular team meetings in the office.

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FACT CHECK
NHS consultants are not demanding a 35% pay rise ([link removed])

There appears to be confusion in the media about the pay demands of NHS England consultants during the recent strikes.

The Guardian said in an article on 20 July that they are seeking “full pay restoration” to the level of pay that they had in 2008/09. The Guardian doesn’t say where the quote comes from, but it may have taken it from a statement from the British Medical Association (BMA), the union that represents the striking consultants.

Many other media outlets—including the Mail, Mirror, Telegraph, Sun, Express and Times, and TalkTV and the Sky News website—have reported that meeting consultants’ demands would amount to a pay rise of 35%.

This appears to be a misunderstanding of the BMA’s claim that the real-terms take-home pay of consultants fell by 35% between 2008/9 and 2021/22 (although the full restoration of a fall of 35% would amount to a rise of 54%).

The BMA told Full Fact that the consultants’ strikes are not a campaign for full restoration, and said it has asked the government for an uplift above inflation at the time.

What is pay restoration? ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* Most junior doctors’ basic pay was higher than £14 per hour in 2022/23 ([link removed])
* Viral photo of melted traffic lights not from Rhodes wildfires ([link removed])
* Amish people do get vaccinated ([link removed])

Read our latest fact checks ([link removed])
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Team Full Fact

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