Andy Burnham’s Ministry of Truth

In the heart of every leftist, I suspect, lies the secret desire to own a Ministry of Truth. That is the conclusion to be drawn after Britain’s prime minister, Andy Burnham, announced the creation of something he called the National Center for Information Defense.The new organ’s job, apparently, will be to “detect, attribute and disrupt” disinformation, harnessing the combined power of intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and social-media companies. It sounds almost comically Orwellian. The announcement may jolt the memories of many Americans. In 2022, President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security established the Disinformation Governance Board, headed by the colorful Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation specialist who had once styled herself the “Mary Poppins of disinformation.” As in Britain, the idea was presented as a means of coordinating the government’s response to misinformation relating to national security, including Russia and illegal immigration. It soon turned out, however, that the very woman who was going to oversee the fight against misinformation had herself made a series of highly contentious political claims online.Ms. Jankowicz had fretted that Donald Trump would “embolden ISIS,” praised former British spook Christopher Steele — whose notorious dossier about Mr. Trump was substantially discredited — and warned against the idea of “free speech absolutists” taking control of social-media.The whole thing descended into a national joke, with Republicans christening the department the Ministry of Truth. Within six months the panel had been dissolved. Whatever lesson Britain should have learned from this episode, it is certainly not the one that it appears to have taken away. So it was that this week, Mr. Burnham unveiled his National Centre for Information Defence at the United Nations.The intended target is hostile foreign information warfare, particularly from the Kremlin. Now, there is nothing objectionable about British intelligence identifying Russian influence operations. Governments must protect the integrity of elections and public debate from foreign interference.What Mr. Burnham said next, though, suggested that the remit of this new unit would be rather wider than it seemed, and veered dangerously close to the culture wars. For the past decade, the prime minister declared, Britain had given “too much ground” to people pushing a “negative, corrosive narrative about life in Britain, which bears no resemblance to reality.” His new organization, he added, would supposedly help stem this “poisonous tide.”Poisonous tide? About whom exactly was Mr. Burnham talking? This was no longer simply about fighting bots from Russian troll farms. The prime minister was presuming to pass judgment on “narratives” about Britain, and banning ones he doesn’t like. This can only have sent a chill up the spine of every Brexiteer and rightwing voter in the land. National security is starting to resemble national control. What exactly constitutes a “narrative of decline.” Personally, I think it would aptly describe an account of the performance of Mr. Burnham’s party in government. Feature miserable economic growth. Creaking public services. Immigration at historically high levels, with small-boat crossings out of control and the hard right taking to the streets in protest.Taxes are soaring. Government debt is enormous, as the International Monetary Fund warned this week. Many voters believe that their country is getting poorer, less cohesive, and less competently governed and that Labor’s foreign policy, from recognizing a Palestinian state to sanctioning Israel, is dictated more by its own backbenches than our national interest.More than 30 people a day are arrested in England and Wales for disobliging social media posts. Citizens have even been arrested for silent prayer near abortion clinics. Surely the last thing we need is another state institution scrutinising our thoughts?When a government tries to monopolize the definition of truth, it inevitably does so in line with its own politics. For example, the largest burden of propaganda swamping modern Britain is that in favour of Palestine, produced by both hostile states, jihadi groups and useful idiots.Given that the foreign secretary has parroted such propaganda himself — such as in a recent video, in which he made unverified claims that children at Gaza had died because Israel blocked their medication, allegations that were denied by Jerusalem — is the government likely to proscribe that type of misinformation? I don’t think so.Surely, the proper answer to Russian lies is democratic truth: Expose the fake accounts, publish the evidence, attribute the operations, and let citizens judge for themselves. An open society could defend the marketplace of ideas, not appoint the government to police it. America tried a Ministry of Truth once. It lasted a few months. Rather than making the same mistake, Britain could learn from its example.

Andy Burnham’s Ministry of Truth

Andy Burnham’s Ministry of Truth

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