| Topic: | Falsifications by Steve Taylor on this thread | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 17/06/25 09:27:00 |
| When I said Steve Taylor had made false claims on this thread, I had taken the precaution of checking this was the case. The below are just a selection but are characteristic of his contributions on this forum. Steve Taylor says: “Apparently the money saved by depriving pensioners of winter fuel allowance is less than the heating of all the hotels for asylum seekers” Fact: The £1.3-1.5billion annual saving from the restrictions on WFA is around half of the total cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels. As it is not the case that half the cost of hotels relates to heating, this claim is false. Steve Taylor says: “The Rwanda deal would have ensured a safe haven for asylum seekers” – Facts: This is not the view of the UK Supreme Court which ruled that Rwanda was not safe for asylum seekers, citing systemic human rights concerns. These had previously been raised the UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. While the Kagame regime has significantly reduced crime in Kigali and you could holiday there with little risk, anyone deemed to be critical of the government is liable to brutal suppression. People from Rwanda apply and have been given asylum in the UK. Steve Taylor says: “More evidence that the Conservatives are so far to the left that they might as well be Labour. Nigel must be laughing as more and more true blue bloods will move to Reform”. Facts: A decision by an individual councillor signifies very little but if you look at recent policy announcements by Farage, the pattern of populist politicians blurring the line between left and right seen both in history and in other countries continues. He is proposing a reversal of Labour’s benefit cuts and a scrapping of the two child benefit cap. At the same time the rhetoric about scrapping the NHS has been put back in a box. In terms of social and economic policy, only the Conservatives offer a straightforwardly right wing alternative. Steve Taylor says: The only disciple of O’Brien is O’Brien himself. Facts: James O’Brien’s slot is one of the most popular on commercial radio and he regularly gets over 1million listeners in a day Steve Taylor is not a liar but he does choose only to believe 'facts' that conform to his prejudices. When he sees something on social media that reinforces his vehemently held views, he won't think to question it but will embrace it firmly. He is a symptom of the degradation of political discourse in this country and around the world in which sloganising and simplistic messaging is used by demagogues to convince the hard of thinking that there are easy solutions to their problems. There are not. |