Furlough political journalists

These are difficult times for political journalists. The days are moving slowly and there is hardly any news. A strategy was laid out publicly by scientists six weeks ago and, rightly or wrongly, the government has been following it ever since. The only things to report are the daily death tolls and the comments made at the daily briefings.

There isn't much Westminster gossip and there have been no scandals. This is a problem for political journalists. How can you report the twists and turns of a fast-moving situation when life is moving slowly?

One option is to manufacture something out of nothing. The story behind the front page of today's Telegraph provides a nice case study in fake news.

The headline claim is that the government has quietly watered down one of its five tests for coming out of lockdown.

The first four have either been met or are close to being met. The fifth hurdle, which ministers have always said is the most important, was described on official Government documents on Monday as a confidence that “any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections”.

On Tuesday the wording was changed to say the aim was to avoid a second peak “that overwhelms the NHS” - making it easier for ministers to say the test has been met.

The allegation is that the fifth test previously said that the government must be...

Confident that any adjustment to current measures will not risk a second peak of infections.

But that it now says that the government must be...

Confident that any adjustment to current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that will overwhelm the NHS.

The story appears to have come from a tweet from the Daily Mail's political editor last night:

This got a thousand retweets in no time and quickly became a Daily Mail article:

Is the government preparing to ditch lockdown? Ministers are accused of watering down 'five tests' for easing curbs as wording of key slide subtly changes overnight

Within a matter of minutes, the Mirror had copied the story:

Coronavirus: Number 10 denies quietly relaxing 5 tests for easing lockdown

Number 10 has denied quietly relaxing the five tests it has to meet before relaxing coronavirus lockdown measures.

The fifth of the five rules originally stated the lockdown could only be eased if the government can be “confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections”.

But in a graphic newly produced for today’s daily coronavirus briefing, the wording had been changed.

It now reads: “Confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelms the NHS.”

It is simply not true that the fifth test 'originally stated the lockdown could only be eased if the government can be “confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections”'.

The five tests were widely reported by the media when they were announced by Dominic Raab on April 16th. A simple Google search shows that nothing has changed. Here is Reuters on April 16th, for example:

'...we must be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelms the NHS.'

Exactly the same wording was quoted by the New York Times, the Guardian and the, er, Telegraph. Alok Sharma used almost identical wording in the press conference on April 17th.

"We need to be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelm the NHS."

On the Conservative Party website, the fifth test says:

We need to be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelm the NHS.

As it happens, I was looking at the five tests last week and used the Conservative Party website as my source. I remember the wording and know that it has not changed. The Wayback Machine confirms that it was exactly the same on 24th April.

Any of this can be checked in a matter of seconds. Today's story, such as it is, is based on slides presented at the daily briefings. On Tuesday, the slide included the reference to the NHS. The slide on Monday didn't.

If you look at the slides, you can see that there are several other changes which I have underlined in red. These have attracted no comment.

The bullet points in Monday's slide were slightly more succinct than those on Tuesday's. Tuesday's had a bit more detail, but all of the 'added' details were in five tests as originally announced.

There has been no change to any of the tests since they were first announced, but that hasn't stopped other newspapers spreading this obviously fake news.

Perhaps it's time to furlough political journalists, put them in self-isolation and bring them back when we're ready to start worrying about the Brexit 'drama' again?