🧵Anatomy of a Tory political cover-up
On 13 May, Rishi Sunak gave a v long, important speech about Britain's security to a Policy Exchange audience.
It was broadcast live on the news channels, and widely reported.
And yet the official historic record has been changed...
1/10
You see, the delivered speech included a number of hard-hitting attacks on Labour and the SNP.
They were scripted. In the video, Sunak's reading them off a document.
But they do not appear in the official "exact" transcript record of the speech.
2/10 gov.uk/government/spe…
Most of the stuff that was excised from the transcripts is raw red meat to the Tory voter base. Just the kind of thing the RW media lap up.
Those things said, heard, reported.
So why do we not have a matching official record of what was said, including the hit-job parts?
3/10
Quick aside: there's another, minor, piece of gaslighting going on here too.
His speech was delivered in front of a backdrop plastered with Policy Exchange logos.
Yet the photo chosen to illustrate the official transcript is of a podium outside Downing Street.
4/10
Back to those omissions.
Again, this is the OFFICIAL transcript we're talking about. The one hosted on the GOV UK website. That is as close as history will ever get to a permanent record.
And yet there are key chunks of text missing.
An example (yellow = missing)
5/10
Another example (again, everything in yellow is missing from the official transcript).
This one's quite extraordinary, don't you think? The bland official record is a single short paragraph.
But Sunak actually went on an extended attack.
6/10
It's time for proper accountability.
It's time for a correct and full record of what was said.
Here's a transcript in PDF format of EVERYTHING that was in the speech as delivered.
7/10
drive.google.com/file/d/1eTYOGi…
But if they can do this sort of thing once, have they done it again?
Excellent question!
According to Google, there have been at least 6 instances of such deletions. All in official speeches delivered by Sunak between Nov 2023 and May 2024.
Who ordered them? And why?
8/10
And why does it matter? Because, in later who-said-what disputes, if you go back to the official record, there is no evidence to back up the assertion that a particular attack line was used.
You would have to track down the original video for that, if one were available.
9/10
SOURCES
Official transcript, with redactions
Archive of official transcript [in case it changes again]
Video of speech
Full transcript, including omitted political attacks
10/10gov.uk/government/spe…
web.archive.org/web/2024051314…
drive.google.com/file/d/1eTYOGi…
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Added: I have been informed that this is due to rules restricting what the Civil Service can do.
But think about it - the entire speech promoted the interests, activities and views of a single party!
The deleted attacks were just a small part of that.
gov.uk/government/pub…
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