True or truthy?

Cherie Blair, did she or didn't she? Lie about accusing Gordon Brown of being a liar, that is.

Well, given Tony's joke at her expense in his speech the next day, it seems reasonable to think she did.

We surely know even without her inside knowledge that Gordon was lying when he said it had been a privilege to work with Tony Blair. Never has a private grudge been so publicly displayed as in the working relationship of these two men.

But read this account in the Times and it seems clear that not only did she lie about Gordon's lying, but the whole party spin machine went into action to kill the story with lies. Like an episode of 'The Thick Of It', they tried one unconvincing lie--'oh, no: she just said 'I have to get by'--before getting her minders to lie for her--'we never heard our boss say nuffink'--before wheeling her out to lie for herself.

Where is the outrage? Am I such a foolish old donkey that I miss why this story should be an amusing moment of light relief? Here, in plain light, we see the mechanics that our government is happy to use to mislead us in order to 'impression manage' the news. When no one cares much about the truth of what happened, or people simply accept that they will be retailed a transparent falsehood, civilisation totters. For an interest in truth is a rare thing in human history, really a purely western concern. Give it up and we give up one of the pillars of our success.