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The Assault on Truth

Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism

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The Assault on Truth

By: Peter Oborne
Narrated by: Peter Oborne
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About this listen

 * THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER *

When Peter Oborne wrote The Rise of Political Lying, looking at the growth of political falsehood under John Major and Tony Blair, he believed things had got as bad as they could be. With the arrival of Boris Johnson at No 10 in 2019 began a new and unprecedented epidemic of deceit.

In The Assault on Truth, a short and powerful new polemic, Oborne shows how Boris Johnson lied again and again in order to secure victory so he could force through Brexit in the face of parliamentary opposition. Johnson and his ministers then lied repeatedly to win the general election in December 2019. The government’s woeful response to the coronavirus pandemic has generated another wave of falsehoods, misrepresentations and fabrications.

The scale and shamelessness of the lying of the Johnson administration far exceeds the lying about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and other issues under Tony Blair. This book argues that the ruthless use of political deceit under the Johnson government is part of a wider attack on civilised values and traditional institutions across the Western world, especially by Donald Trump in the USA. The Johnson and Trump methodology of deceit is about securing power for its own ends - even when they get exposed for lying, they shrug it off as a matter of no consequence.

It matters because all Western institutions are built around the idea of integrity and accountability. This means that an assault on truth is an assault on the rule of law, state institutions and the fundamental idea of fairness, and even democracy itself. ©2021 Peter Oborne (P)2021 Simon & Schuster UK Politics & Government Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"A clinical and merciless account of Johnson's mendacity... gripping." (Guardian)
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The story is narrated with gusto, passion and no small amount of bitterness by the author, J Oborne. It's a clinical dissection of our Prime Minister's character lest we forge the man we've elected. Oborne only focuses on politics, with no mention of his private life, and it's quite enough to leave the listener feeling queasy.

The driving force behind Johnson is made clear; namely what's best for himself. This is hardly Churchillian. One is left feeling we have truly left Kansas and entered another world of politics, and the only other leader to have stepped through the same looking glass (sorry for switching fantasies) has been recently been seen to have no clothes.

A stark reminder Bojo is a liar and cheat

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whatever your political way you think , this is a good insight into the way the things are now and how politics is going unless we change it

good read

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This is a greatly revealing book on how UK politics was and is manipulated and also what you can do to be part of the solution. I highly recommend it. Please bear with and get past the beginning part, which comes across as a bit of a moan.

Absolutely insightful

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I knew how shockingly bad Johnson was, this confirmed that and more. Proper journalism. Great listen/read.

Shockingly good...

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Peter Oborne is an unlikely author for such a devastating critique of Boris Johnson. The content and sentiment expressed deserves to be more mainstream than it is at present. But it’s not mainstream precisely because of people who should known better either aiding and abetting or choosing to look the other way.

Very good

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I kind of knew most of this already but to hear it laid out so starkly what an utter charlatan and liar we have as a Primeminister was disturbing.

A depressing but insightful read

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Peter Oborne is not a left wing firebrand. His account of Johnson’s ignominious rise to power is detailed and shocking even to someone who already had a low opinion of our PM.
Osborne’ s patrician tone make’s his analysis even more powerful. He has worked with Johnson and noted his methods.
He even mentions the grudging regard he once had for Johnson as a comic journalist with the popular touch.
He has written for all the established conservative papers but retained a respect for the importance of honesty and truthful journalism.
He pays close attention to events and writes with the dignity and outrage of a moral philosopher about the damage wrought by narcissistic populists with no respect for the truth.
This book is not long but it is a valuable analysis that deserves a lot of attention.
It is very well read by the author. He does a creditable impersonation of Johsonian bombast when required.
It is a lethal book.

An important and absorbing account of our times

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A brave, candid and explicit revelation confirming what a few people suspect, fewer accuse but many would struggle to actual.y process. The malign deceptions and indecision on the part of our PM. If he is representative of our best, God help us. Expose the lies, demand accountability and rebuild honour and reliability. powerful and revealing read

National, deceit

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Excellent! The clarification of the enigmatic character in 10 Downing Street. de Piffle Johnson

Bojo exposed!

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This is a very scary and entirely believable and accurate account of how deliberate and calculated lies and misrepresentations and outright fraud are now the norm with the Johnson U.K. government and the Conservative Parliamentary Party as a whole. The impartiality of the Civil Service, the Judiciary, the BBC and other public services and oversight systems is under attack by what is effectively a virtual one-party state, at least in England. Tory donors and big business supporters bankroll and support this wilful misleading of citizens and the likes of Dominic Cummings scheme and connive behind the scenes. It is our very democratic foundations and our most cherished institutions that are under systematic assault in Britain today. We should all read Oborne’ account, then be afraid, then sit up and act to stop it!

Frightening and honest: Johnson is a monster!

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