Sputnik Orbiting the World: Lies in Parliament and unrest in South Africa

It is often said of the Labour leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, that he is an “on the one hand… but on the other hand…” type of guy. He seemed to prove that point this week, when he both supported the statement made on the floor of the House of Commons by Dawn Butler MP calling the prime minister a liar, while at the same time agreeing with the speaker of the House for kicking her out of the Commons for saying so. But there are many in the country who agree with Dawn Butler and believe that our prime minister is very much a stranger to truth; one of the most distinguished of those is author and journalist Peter Oborne, who has written a book called ‘The Assault on Truth’. He joined Sputnik to discuss this era of political lying.

It has been a nightmare couple of weeks in the Republic of South Africa, the Rainbow Nation in which so many people around the world had invested so much hope. More than 300 people have been killed in the current unrest, thousands of people have lost their jobs, and hundreds of businesses – many of them black-owned companies – have gone bust. There has been extraordinary turbulence on the streets, of a kind not seen since the liberation of the country. There are many sides to this story, so this week we turn to the analysis of award-winning journalist Paula Slier, who has been reporting from the country over the last few weeks.