Every single general election we ever had would be void if we go by this premise. Lies and manipulation are part and parcel of any vote unfortunately.
No. No they are not. “Spin”, aka presenting facts in the best light for you and keeping quiet about the ones that harm you is part and parcel of politics. Manifestos are written in the knowledge they are unlikely to be fully delivered because they are based on what a party will ideally do once in power rather than what turns out to be possible of a priority once they get there.
But this new populist approach of straight out lying and then smirking and doubling down when challenged, this is new and very dangerous to democracy. It’s like the pitch is now “vote for me, you know I’m lying but I tell lies you want to be true so you can see I share your values. The other guy, he tells the truths that you wish were not true so he’s not on your side at all, he’s a traitor to your values”
On the same subject:
I have seen the “we don’t care that Leave/Boris lied because politicians always lie” line from a few Leavers. I guess if that is their expectation of their own politicians it does explain why they’ve been so passive about the massive No Deal bait and switch.
I find it weird when Leavers unpick the wording of the Red Bus, or Boris’s earlier rejection of prorogument, or similar statements to show they were not technically a lie, just very misleading. Fair enough you might expect that from the other side, but to be ok for the people on your own side to deliberately mislead you as long as they don’t technically lie? What’s that all about?
In a similar vein, when Leavers say “well all politicians lie, Leave voters didn’t actually believe them”, I think “well your politicians clearly thought telling those lies would benefit them somehow, so why do you think they did it if they didn’t expect to be believed?”