Could we please get

the facts straight?
I have long since given up on expecting the media to get the facts straight on any story at all. They just don't seem able to do it. That means the rest of the population which depends on the media for the story won't get the facts straight either.
But there are people who should get their facts straight and won't or don't do it for their own purposes.
I was talking to a politician yesterday. I have to talk to these people occasionally. Most of them irritate me. I am as aware as they are that, whatever the general population might think, getting things done is not easy. Even if you happen to have control of both houses of parliament it is not easy because there is always the public servant who is determined to make things difficult. ("Yes Minister" was a good deal more accurate than many people realise.) When you do not have control of both houses of parliament then the situation can be very difficult.
In circumstances like that there is a special need to get the facts right - unless of course you happen to be in opposition and it will stop the government implementing the policies they were elected to implement. Or perhaps you can say "we did that" when in actual fact your side of politics did no such thing. Of course you only ever say that about popular measures.
The politician I was talking to was full of these things. He was gleeful about the way his party had managed to stymie so much legislation (always on the grounds that it was "bad"). He took pride in telling me how many good things his own party had done and how much better it would be when they were returned to government. All expected talk from any politician perhaps.
I listened. I did not argue. There is no point in arguing with someone like this. It happens on both sides of politics.
But then he got on to a topic about which I do know something. I was personally involved. The odious man I was talking to tried to claim the credit for his side of politics.
I stopped him in his verbal tracks and, smiling sweetly at him, I said, "That's very odd. I put a lot of research into that. I was on the working party. It was headed by..... and it was the..... government which passed the relevant legislation."
Did he believe me? No. I was there. He wasn't. Therefore I have to be wrong. Could we please get the facts straight?
I don't think it is going to happen.