Polling day is coming.
28 November 2019 | Full Fact election update
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Dear Supporter,
In just two weeks’ time we’ll be heading to the polls.
We’ve scrutinised the manifestos, we’ve fact checked the live TV debates and reached millions of voters through our website, social media and media partnerships.
Some of the tactics used over the last few weeks have crossed the line. You've probably been as disappointed as us by what you've seen and heard.
With two weeks to go, can you help us hold candidates to the standards we expect?
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We’re not the only ones who feel let down:
* When over 4,000 people were asked what they’d noticed from the election campaign in the last few days, the second most popular answer ([link removed]) was ‘Lies/don’t trust politicians’
* Yesterday the latest Ipsos MORI Veracity Index ([link removed]) found that just 14% of the public said they trust politicians in general to tell the truth, the lowest score in ten years
This is why Full Fact exists: to change politics for the better. When politicians spread bad information, it’s harmful to trust, communities,and our rights as voters. We all know that they can and should do better.
Supporter, now’s not the time to give in to apathy. When we wrote to all candidates standing in this election a few weeks ago - asking them to get their facts right, back up claims with evidence, and correct mistakes - we were delighted by the response. Many of them got in touch to say they agreed with us. We shouldn't judge all candidates negatively. We can hold our candidates to the standards we expect.
For the next fourteen days we'll keep working to improve the behaviour of politicians and the quality of public debate so that voters can get accurate, reliable information on which to base their decision.
That’s why the team and I are asking for your support to keep us fact checking, through this election and beyond. The support we receive from our readers safeguards our independence and impartiality. It means that we’ll never be bought, we’ll never take sides. You can keep us fighting for the right of all of us not to be misled or misinformed.
If you can’t afford to donate right now, I understand. And Full Fact will always be free to use and available for all. But if you find our work useful, I’d like to ask one more favour. Hit reply and tell us. Kind words, encouragement, donations, people sharing our work and a large pile of biscuits will keep us going until the end.
There’s just two weeks left. Now is the time to stand up for a better politics in this country. Don’t let the truth be the loser of this election.
Thank you for standing with us,
Will
On Wednesday, the Scottish Nationalist Party launched their manifesto. As ever, our team of fact checkers were on hand to scrutinise the key claims.
The SNP Manifesto: fact checked ([link removed])
We’ve taken a look at each of the other parties manifestos as well. You can find our analysis of all of them on our election hub:
Many manifestos ([link removed])
In other election fact checking:
** FACT CHECK
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** Councils aren’t using pre-filled postal ballots to suppress the youth vote ([link removed])
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Concerns that people born in 2000 and 2001 were being obstructed from voting arose after people shared pictures of postal ballot papers with the year of the voter’s date of birth partially filled as starting with 19. We don’t think there’s anything to be worried about here. We contacted some of the councils who had sent the ballot papers, who told us that they do pre-fill the date of birth on postal ballots, but that voters born in 2000 or 2001 would receive a ballot prefilled accordingly with “20..”
Never mind the ballots ([link removed])
** FACT CHECK
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** What do the trade documents Jeremy Corbyn showed actually say about drug prices? ([link removed])
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At a press conference Jeremy Corbyn showed 451 pages of minutes from meetings between UK and US negotiators, which he said confirm the NHS is “on the table” in a future trade agreement.
The leaked UK documents detail six meetings between July 2017 to July 2019, and show UK and US negotiators discussing a large number of trade-related issues, most of which are not linked to healthcare. They do cite US negotiators bringing up the issue of pharmaceutical patents and drug pricing, though they do not give an indication of the extent to which UK negotiators agreed with the US position.
What's in the docs? ([link removed])
** FACT CHECK
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** The Conservative Party was wrong to say that Labour will scrap the single occupant council tax discount ([link removed])
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We’ve seen a number of posts on Facebook claiming that Labour have snuck out a policy to stop the 25% discount on council tax for single occupants. This stems from Conservative Party campaigning from before the manifestos were released.
This is not Labour policy, and is based on a sentence in a report commissioned, not written, by Labour earlier this year, and is not in their manifesto or costing documents.
This isn't Labour policy ([link removed])
** FACT CHECK
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** Also this week ([link removed])
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* This supposed Dominic Raab tweet seems to be an old fake ([link removed])
* Twitter polls are not accurate opinion polls ([link removed])
* The £20.5 billion NHS England spending increase ([link removed]) is the largest five year increase since the mid-2000s
* Latest poll puts support for Welsh independence at 24% ([link removed])
* Labour corrects broadband cost figure ([link removed])
* Diane Abbott did say that Chairman Mao did more good than harm ([link removed])
* It's not correct to say two-thirds of businesses make less than £10,000 profit ([link removed])
* Conservative party misleadingly edit video of Jess Phillips ([link removed])
* Is the NHS up for sale? ([link removed])
Visit our election hub ([link removed])
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Have a great weekend.
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