I have a real soft spot for the BBC reporter Simon McCoy ever since he appeared live on TV holding a ream of paper instead of the iPad he thought he picked up, despite this McCoy is one of the sharpest minds in the game with a wicked sense of humour and unnerving knack of highlighting the preposterous.
This was evidenced again this week as he was at his scintillating and cutting best, earlier this year an ex Russian spy and Putin enemy was poisoned along with his daughter in Salisbury, they survived, just however a couple later stumbled upon a perfume packet tester packet that contained the poison and the lady in question was not so fortunate dying a few days later.
A lengthy police investigation revealed the prime suspects to be two Russian men that were identified on CCTV coming into Salisbury and near the home of the poisoned spies (the police had already ascertained that the poison had been applied to the door handle)
This led to denials from Russian culminating in the two Russian suspects appearing on Russia today explaining that they flew over from Russia, visited Salisbury on two consecutive days because they wanted to visit Salisbury cathedral having heard how wonderful the spire was. In true British deadpan style McCoy ended the segment by looking into camera and declaring “Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov who…… are very keen on steeples”
It was perhaps the best response to a drummed up cock and bull story which I am surprised Putin and the Russian authorities could even deliver with a straight face, whether Petrov and Boshirov are guilty we can suspect but will never know, they are of course entitled under British law to a fair trial and a presumption of innocence until proved guilty however the chances of this ever coming to the old bailey are nil so we are left to draw our own inevitable conclusions.
But here is the thing, we sort of expect dishonesty from an ex KGB agent who has effectively established a dictatorship equal if not even more nefarious failed communist experiment. Where we do not expect to see it is in the cradle of modern democracy the good old US of A.
Sometimes you here something said and think, that cants be right he wouldn’t of, in the polemic and spiteful world of American politics we have seen both sides scape the barrel with false accusations and untruths, hurtful character assassinations and outright defamation, so when I heard that Trump had claimed he had helped pull the bodies out of the 9/11 rubble I thought it was just that, that was until I saw the video of him claiming he had helped pull the bodies out of the rubble.
Trumps claims were of course a lie, he was just following the towers collapse appearing on a radio phone in where he managed to get the point across that with the towers demise he now had the tallest skyscraper in New York. Crass, repugnant and utterly predictable behaviour from a man with no form of human compassion or dignity, a man this week pictured giving a smiling thumbs up at the 9/11 memorial and a double fist bump at the united 93 memorial.
Trump lies constantly, he always has yet no one seems to be able to hold him to account, what has happened to the spine of the GOP who constantly turns a blind eye to the behaviour of its leader and president. These days’ world leaders can tell the barest faced lie without any fear or retribution or being held to account, whether it’s the body count in Costa Rica or a lie on the brexit lies on the side of a bus in the UK we overlook so much.
We seem to be numb to the lies; those that are outraged usually turn to social media to vent their rage which has the same effect as someone throwing angst ridden post it notes with red capital letters over the white cliffs of Dover.
Perhaps the best course of action we have is the ballot box but even that today seems to be a choice between what kind of awful you want in power.
Simon McCoy once said when reporting on a royal birth, “come back later for more updates, it won’t be news” when it comes to our leaders perhaps we should say “come back later for updates, it won’t be truth”
