By Ian Richardson

One of the clearest examples of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ so far in the British election campaign has been the media’s flagging of the Tory manifesto as stealing moderate Labour’s clothes by ‘abandoning Thatcherism’ and instead pitching ‘for the centre ground’, allegedly abandoned by Corbyn’s Labour. In reality May’s Tory manifesto is the most right wing Tory manifesto since the Second World War, going way beyond Thatcher in its proposals to deepen the attack on the welfare state, extending austerity’s scope to both the very young – ending free school lunches – and to the elderly with the ending of winter fuel payments except to the very poor and a ‘solution’ to the social care crisis of making those needing it pay for it themselves from the value of their homes.