"Why can’t like they just talk to us straight?
When will politicians start telling us the truth?"
In the not-so-distant past, I would have happily aligned myself with such a question. These words, though, were not mine, but those of an audience member on BBC1s Question Time this week (the first one of the 2010 election.) Instead of agreeing, I found myself arguing against the questioner.
Throughout this election, you haven’t a hope of seeing politicians speaking ‘truth’, not because they are evil liars, but because they are forced to conform to a party policy. Rather than demanding politicians to tell it straight, a simpler solution is to read it straight from their policy documents. This month more than ever, politicians will be constrained to answers which draw directly from policies, so why not start there yourself?
Personalities are important factors in deciding who to vote for too, so watching potential MPs and Ministers squirm under questioning can be extremely important. If you are looking for ‘truth’, though, don’t expect to hear them say anything that you can’t already read in black and white.
