There seems to be a certain kind of columnist that no longer recognises any obligation to the "truth". Boris Johnson is, of course, the prime example: he always looks baffled when challenged about his journalism, as if the idea he believed any of it is manifestly absurd. [THREAD]
2. Many of these columnists are now in or close to the centre of power. Increasingly, we are governed by writers of fiction: but unlike novelists, whose work is explicitly branded as such, these writers publish their fictions in "news" papers and magazines. That has consequences.
3. Govts have always tried to narrate events in a way that suits them. But it feels, increasingly, as if controlling the narrative is *all* that matters: that narrating Brexit is more important than negotiating it; that announcing new hospitals matters more than building them.
4. The current govt was forged in the 2016 Vote Leave campaign, led by columnists like Johnson and Gove. It span a series of brilliant fictions: "Turkey is joining the EU"; "We hold all the cards"; "German car makers will beat down Merkel's door"; "easiest trade deal in history".
5. But governing is not an exercise in creative writing. EU negotiators are not characters in a newspaper column, acting as their authors decide. Tariffs and supply chains are not free-floating discourses. Saying "we flung a protective ring around care homes" doesn't save lives.
6. Treating politics as fiction eats like acid at public trust. If you sign up to controls in the Irish Sea, but deny it in public; or if you leak contradictory stories, tailored to different outlets, people notice. And trust matters - esp. in a pandemic, & esp. in a negotiation.
7. @JasonCowleyNS captured Boris Johnson's career as a columnist beautifully in a recent article. If we want better public policy, we should think about why this kind of writing is so richly rewarded, & why it increasingly provides an entry into govt. ENDS newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20… 
