Some of the Brexit strategists and
bankrollers think they are awfully clever to have conned people into supporting
them by a campaign of mendacity and deceit, but actually there’s nothing new
about lying in order to achieve a political objective, even in England.
Back in 1678, Titus Oates (pictured) was in a
tight corner. His cv included being expelled from school, failing to get a
degree at Cambridge, then falsely claiming he had one to get ordained as a Church of England priest. Next he had lied about a schoolteacher whose job he wanted, accusing
him of sodomy.
This time Oates got arrested for
perjury, but he escaped and in 1675 managed to get a job as a ship’s chaplain.
The following year he was sacked for buggery, and arrested again for perjury,
but managed to escape again.
Next he tried his hand at becoming
a Catholic priest, but got expelled from three different seminaries. What on
earth was he to do? Oates decided to turn to the thing he did best. Lying. In
September 1678, he concocted fake news on a heroic scale, claiming there was a huge foreign-backed Roman Catholic plot, involving hundreds of
priests and nobles.
They were planning a Catholic takeover of England while the Queen’s doctor and her sister-in-law’s secretary were to assassinate King Charles II.
To be continued…………….
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