Enter the fact-checkers

An army of pointy-heads is poised to assess the claims of all sides in the coming election campaign. That should be good for democracy, says Jonathon Breckon.

You might think that, during an election campaign, the only sources of evidence that matter to political apparatchiks are the polling data flowing from Ipsos Mori, YouGov, Lord Ashcroft and the like. It certainly does not seem like the time for inconvenient, inconclusive research on which manifesto promises might—or might not—work. It is much easier at this stage to promise some future billions on housing or tax gifts, and ignore the actual evidence.

But politicians beware. An army of economists, statisticians, social scientists and other pointy-heads are watching what you say. And they mean business.