POLITICAL spin is in danger of risking thousands of lives and now is the time for forthright honesty a journalist lecturer has warned.

Neil Macfarlane, a senior lecturer in online journalism at the University of Sunderland, reacting to the ongoing saga surrounding Dominic Cummings said now is the time for forthright honesty.

He said: "Transparency and honesty are more vital than ever during the coronavirus pandemic, but this government is taking post-truth lessons straight from the Trump playbook - and the Dominic Cummings episode brings this into stark light.

"We in the UK are suffering more than almost any other country in the world.

"Our frontline workers are still - three months on - risking their lives without proper protective equipment.

"Despite being told to 'test, test, test”, we’re still nowhere near being able to investigate enough suspected cases."

He added: "The government clouds the discourse by leaping from one data measurement to another, depending on which best suits its narrative.

"Japan has 126 million people, but only 851 deaths. We have 66 million people, but 36,914 deaths. We still haven’t been told how or why this happened."

Mr Macfarlane said robust questioning was limited by handpicking journalists and refusing one-to-one interview requests. And, when cornered by a direct question, the Prime Minister and his cabinet members "simply waffle".

He said: "If we were being asked to believe that Cummings panicked, did what he thought was best for his wife and child and fled hundreds of miles north to the safety of his wider family, many might sympathise.

"But we’re now told that he drove 30 miles to a popular tourist spot on a Bank Holiday, and had a little walk by the river, because he was worried he might be too ill to drive after recently suffering from coronavirus - a deadly virus that has led to a nationwide lockdown that he himself devised.

"There’s no opt-out in the guidance for that one Not that you would know it from reading cabinet ministers’ Twitter feeds over the weekend.

"In a coordinated release, they all parroted the same line that Cummings’ explanation was clear and thorough and now is the time to move on. The Prime Minister himself said the same.

Earlier in the day, many were tweeting out warnings to the public to stay away from busy beauty spots in their constituencies during the Bank Holiday. The hypocrisy is galling."

He added: "By the way, it’s worth pointing out that the Labour party have been just as guilty of this in the past. Tony Blair’s right-hand man Alastair Campbell came from similar stock.

"The sight of him criticising Cummings and Johnson yesterday for ''damaging our standing in the world and standards in public life” would have raised a few eyebrows among those who are old enough to remember the government disinformation campaign during the Iraq war.

"The arts of political spin have been employed by governments for decades, but now is the time for forthright honesty."

* To read the full blog post, visit https://medium.com/@ByNeilMac/dominic-cummings-and-the-dark-arts-of-political-spin-ba78f900fa65?fbclid=IwAR1zhnXXbwKPDYhvfRY29SV80oRkjuIUuTVJA6SU8l9BlvnV7YHQY6XTjHQ