Skipper

Today Simon Hoggart criticises politicians who maunder on about 'hope' and 'optimism', condemning it as 'clap hands if you believe in fairies' territory. He goes on to discuss whether politicians should not eschew all forms of spin and rhetoric in favour of the unvarnished truth:

An honest politician would say: "Look, the world economic situation is desperate; you won't be able to afford your mortgage, and you probably couldn't sell your house if you needed to; more terrorists are being trained every day; and some scientists think the world is going to become a ball of dust in a generation. There's not much I can do about it, but I'll do what I can, and at least I won't con you into expecting anything better."

It's a noble ideal but if someone offered the above degree of honesty while skilled communicators offered, in silken terms, an apparently genuine chance of solutions to such problems, the chances are, say I, that voters would go for reassuring hope rather than depressing truths. It's not that politicians are inherently liars or dissemblers, it's more that we usually prefer the enhanced rose coloured version to the the grim reality. This was not the case with Churchill's 'blood tears and sweat', but in his case the worst scenario, the war, was upon us and his aggression appealed to a desperate nation.

But it was still the hope which he conveyed through his leadership which strengthened our parents/grand-parents' resolve.Bertrand Russell said that he 'would rather be mad with the truth than sane with lies'. Hoggart might agree that the former is the preferred condition but I suspect most people would vote for the latter.