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Earlier this week Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tweeted a screenshot of a UK government press release with the headline “UK announces £680m for new high-speed electric railway in Turkey”.
Alongside the screenshot, Mr Burnham tweeted “So we can’t afford to keep our own ticket offices open - but we can afford to build a new line in Turkey?” A number of similar posts have also been shared on Facebook.
Mr Burnham’s suggestion that the UK is financing a new railway line in Turkey is misleading—the £680 million figure used in the government press release refers to a loan provided by three banks (J.P. Morgan, ING Bank and BNP Paribas) which has been underwritten by the UK government’s export credit agency.
It is not money being directly invested in the project by the UK government. The Italian and Austrian export credit agencies are also providing reinsurance.
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There appears to be confusion in the media about the pay demands of NHS England consultants during the recent strikes.
Many media outlets—including the Mail, Mirror, Telegraph, Sun, Express and Times, and TalkTV and the Sky News website—have reported that meeting consultants’ demands would amount to a pay rise of 35%.
This appears to be a misunderstanding of a claim by the British Medical Association (BMA), the union that represents the striking consultants, that the real-terms take-home pay of consultants fell by 35% between 2008/9 and 2021/22 (although the full restoration of a fall of 35% would amount to a rise of 54%).
Other outlets such as the Guardian don’t reference a specific figure for the proposed rise, but say that consultants are seeking “full pay restoration” to the level of pay that they had in 2008/09. Responding to Full Fact, the paper told us that it was quoting a statement from the BMA.
The BMA told Full Fact that the consultants’ strikes are not a campaign for full restoration, and said it has asked the government for an uplift above inflation at the time.
