Quite right to ask what kind of regulatory systems could be in place to make sure Tories can't get away with what they did last night. But this does seem a rare welcome case of when a gambit backfires so spectacularly it discourages people trying it again.
The number of Twitter users actually thinking the Tory press office was a fact-checking service will have been minimal, but the general pick up, esp on TV news, is quite substantial, giving general impression of Tory dirty tricks.
Plus journos particularly outraged, as they can see how it threatens to discredit their own fact-checking operations, making relations with Tory press office more strained than they needed to be.
Overall, a welcome amount of grade-A fuck-up in this particular bit of shenanigans.
