Do you think being a liar is part of modern politics?

[Gromit]

You mean the days when they would resign, or at least get into trouble if they got caught telling whoppers?

Full cycle.

1. Resign.
2. Get moved to a descrete cushy number out of sight for a bit.
3. Snuck back in once the heat has died down.
4. Repeat.

 

[8ball]

I'm currently reading Executive Orders.
It's a Tom Clancy fantasy about an honest man becoming President.
Everyone (apart from insiders) hate it and try to destroy him.

We get the politicians we deserves someone once scathingly said.

Fwiw, I think planetgeli is perfectly right about lying *always* having been a part of politics, but in terms of this “golden age of truth”, I’ve seen that used too many times by dodgy fuckers on a “nothing to see here” mission.

So apologies if the first was meant, but not the second (end of shitty day arsiness, soz).

Some things have clearly changed. It’s not simple mendacity either. Lying used to be about conveying a false reality, and there were consequences for being caught out (we can argue about the “new guy, same as the old guy” thing, but I grew up seeing plenty of MP’s resignations that weren’t merely about hating their leader, or manoeuvring for the top spot).

Take Trump as the obvious star of the new paradigm - he’ll chuck out a few true (or as accurate as he can remember) things along with the bullshit. And then change his mind within the space of the same conversation.

No one says much because they expect it.

 

[8ball]

Full cycle.

1. Resign.
2. Get moved to a descrete cushy number out of sight for a bit.
3. Snuck back in once the heat has died down.
4. Repeat.

The “Mandelson Manoeuvre”.

 

[Gromit]

The “Mandelson Manoeuvre”.

I love that I didn't even have to mention him. You just knew.

 

[8ball]

I love that I didn't even have to mention him. You just knew.

If you remove him from the dataset, it wasn’t really all that common.

 

[8ball]

Just a question a bit about where we all stand.

<raises hand>

Your poll options don’t really relate directly to the question (one could tick both of them and mean them, or one, or the other, or neither, and it wouldn’t tell us anything about our opinion re: the question in the thread title).

Is there a drug out there that eases crippling cases of pedantry?

 

[Gromit]

<raises hand>


Is there a drug out there that eases crippling cases of pedantry?

Prescribes 15 pints of lager.

You'll still be a pedant... Just too wasted to correct anyone.

 

[8ball]

Prescribes 15 pints of lager.

You'll still be a pedant... Just too wasted to correct anyone.

I’m willing to take a hit for the greater good.

 

[Pickman's model]

<raises hand>

Your poll options don’t really relate directly to the question (one could tick both of them and mean them, or one, or the other, or neither, and it wouldn’t tell us anything about our opinion re: the question in the thread title).

Is there a drug out there that eases crippling cases of pedantry?

Not to mention it should be a public poll Ming

 

[8ball]

Not to mention it should be a public poll Ming

<pedant fist bump>

 

[cupid_stunt]

Not to mention it should be a public poll Ming

And...

1 - multiply voting options should be available.

2 - Where the fuck is the comedy option?

 

[Ming]

Not to mention it should be a public poll Ming

Publick.

 

[Ming]

<raises hand>

Your poll options don’t really relate directly to the question (one could tick both of them and mean them, or one, or the other, or neither, and it wouldn’t tell us anything about our opinion re: the question in the thread title).

Is there a drug out there that eases crippling cases of pedantry?

Ill thought out poll when slightly pissed.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

2 - Where the fuck is the comedy option?

the trouble with political jokes is that some of them get elected...

 

[Wilf]

Johnson is an outright liar. Most politicos are more masters of doublethink, which still involves bullshit of course.

Don't know what it was with Blair, a schmoozy-politiciany-spin thing that generally avoided outright lies or, more to the point, never gave grammatical constructions that could later be seen as direct lies (give or take a few WMDs). Johnson though is a much more straight down the middle, out and out liar. He does what it doesn't say on the tin, has quite short synapses between his self interest and his gob telling lies. A proper old school fucking liar. Lies to you, lies to me, lies to mrs windsor, lies to his wife, lies to his unspecified number of children.

Blair's version was the more insidious and by far the more dishonest. 'Look, y'know, I'm a straight kinda guy'...

 

[Chilli.s]

Lying is the cornerstone of politics, avoiding questions too or answering in a way that avoids answering.

 

[Poi E]

We elect them to tell the lies we tell to ourselves.

 

[Cloo]

I think that over promising is part of politics rather than outright lying. Though the latter is a way of life for some politicians.

 

[Pickman's model]

What concerns me more is the poor quality of the lies now told, the shoddy inability of our politicos to make them appear true due to their lack of any form of sincerity, and for this as for so much else it can be traced back to Tony Blair

 

[not-bono-ever]

Let me be clear..

 

[ferdinand]

What hope would an honest political party have if they told the truth? The huge debt nobody could pay off. The impossibilities of sustaining the NHS. a stark truth that every company and utility has foreign owners and with no manufacturing base low pay and exploitation is inevitable.
Lying is their only hope

 

[8ball]

The huge debt nobody could pay off.

Let's see something backing this up. Without any simplistic analogies involving household income or similar right-wing obfuscations.

The impossibilities of sustaining the NHS.

"...unless paid for at a similar rate to comparable European countries" is what I think you meant to say.

a stark truth that every company and utility has foreign owners and with no manufacturing base low pay and exploitation is inevitable.

*Every* company and utility?
And please elaborate on the necessary link to low pay and exploitation being caused by the lack of a manufacturing base.
With special reference to the bountiful pay and employment rights in China, of course.

Lying is their only hope

...wonders whether some irony is on the way...

 

[friedaweed]

Lying to get ahead is fine, why wouldn't politicians do it?

Yup we've all lied to get head at some point in our lives.

 

[eoin_k]

 

[Ming]

Yup we've all lied to get head at some point in our lives.

‘...I’ve been bitten by a snake...’.

 

[HoratioCuthbert]

Don’t you have a vox pops on Brexit for the Beeb to be getting to?

Eh? Uncalled for that.