Of all the commandments for living under a politician, the first is always this: don’t believe him. Nothing he says can be taken at face value; everything should be fed into a polygraph. Those of scrupulous courtesy can wrap it up in red ribbon, or uncork that aphorism about how the man must be taken seriously but never literally. All the same, scratch a political promise and underneath will glint a pretext. Scrutinise his grand plans and you find only shabby tactics.
Aditya Chakrabortty
There might have been some light editing there.
Especially i do not supprt Reform politicians.
It is alleged Nigel Farage bullied Jewish kids at school over the Holocaust. When he was above the age of criminal responsibility.
And Paul Nuttall the Reform Deputy Chairman is alleged to have written horrific stuff about Jews and the Holocaust.
Plus Farage has spoken of admiration of Enoch Powell, and Keith Joseph.
Give it a rest, willya. What effect do you think repeating this nonsense has on the denizens of this place?
You must be quite a dimwit if you don’t realise that Sir Keith was a Jew. And a jolly good Jew too.
That is a straw man argument. I never said Keith Joseph was not Jewish.
The allegations by others made in papers are that Farage allegdly bullied Jewish kids over the Holocaust.
No…that Nigel F has spoken of his admiration for Keith J doesn’t quite fit your straw man.
Why has it taken 50 years for people to remember? What do YOU remember from 50 years ago?
I can remember exactly what I was doing this day 50 years ago. I was in bed with stinking flu in an unheated box bedroom in Sunderland. But I cannot remember a single verbatim word I or anyone else said then.
Have a down vote, you dopey cunt…
Same to you.
The thing about bullies is, they’re bigger and stronger than you and that makes them braver and more successful.
Then they go on to shag attractive women, take good jobs and wear watches that cost more than your car. While you can only seethe and cope about having no mates.
Life’s not fair is it Real Man?
You are a warped depraved woman who is sexually attracted to bullies and bad boys. You are depraved and vile. You are not a moral person.
You probably write love letters to serial killers.
You are a weirdo.
And don’t forget that creepy pictures you regularly post on here. You are being creepy as per usual.
I do have mates, you strange creepy woman. And I am married.
But creepy bullies like you get to the top.
You became a racist because daddy would not buy you a pony. Pathetic.
And I am married.
I forgot gays can get married now. Does he let you be the lady of the house?
But creepy bullies like you get to the top.
And there’s nothing you can do about it.
I am not gay you weirdo. And you are a sad creepy sl*g, and sl*pper, who thinks the more evil a man is the sexier he is.
You probably write love letters to serial killers.
You are warped, twisted, and depraved.
People like you are the problem.
The world is suffering because horrible vile people like you get to the top.
Thanks for the picture Steve. I do like Flashman!!
You married one of those Moslem women who were so nice to you at “Uni”? Or a land whale with terminal myopia?
You are a sad creepy, warped woman who posts creepy pictures every day.
You probably write love letters to rapists and serial killers because you see goodness as a weakness. You see evil as strength and as sexy. The more evil a man is the more you are attracted to them. You are creep,y and a weirdo. And the men you dream of, call you ugly, mad, and psychologically warped.
No normal man would want you.
But he’s living rent-free in your tiny little noggin, Barry.
Oooohh Steve… you got SmartymcBottyPants frothing at the mouth…
Careful or it might blow a resistor… 😉
This reminds me of the Tony Benn quote “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you”. But then at the end of you think, well, yes, OK Tone. Now why do you want even more government which is less accountable and harder to get rid of?
Aditya has figured this part out, but is still writing for The Guardian, rather than running off to join Perry de Havilland over at Samizdata.net or becoming Bloke from North London on here. But maybe it’s starting, that little voice that tells you that it’s all rather a sham.
I don’t think the slight edit Our Host made would ever sink in with mr. Shakeybörkbörk(börk). Because His Side is always in the Right, For Reasons….
I can’t help but notice the unrestrained salivating at the *possible* usual shift in power in the Houses during the mid-terms, on top of the usual TDR.
Tony Blair and his spin doctors were the masters of this. Rather than fighting to defend each and every lie, they just went for the big one: “the Prime Minister would never tell a lie”. It was amazing how many people just accepted this statement as a fact so ignored all the evidence of lesser lies.
Well yes… Because a Politician, like a Lawyer, never actually lies.
They “redact the Truth”, which is wholly and completely different, because it’s three words with more letters in them, y’see…. **
Lying is for Commoners, not for our Morally Superior Guiding Lights…..
** If I’m not mistaken the gist of that was used several times by sir PTerry, usually around/through Lord Vetinary.
I disagree: some politicians lie because it is their natural mode of conversation. They lie even when the outsider can see no incentive to lie. I cite Toni Blair and both Clintons. I once described this view of mine to a colleague who replied that his Cambridge college used to have a Bursar who was like that. The college finally grasped the nettle and sacked the bugger.
As a counter-example I give you Gordon Brown. In opposition he was entirely happy to mislead people short of actually lying. But in his early days as Chancellor of the Exchequer Blair required him to go on the telly and tell an outright lie. I saw the interview. Brown’s discomfort was palpable and, moreover, he was obviously an unpractised, unskilled liar. I dare say he “improved” with practice. He was an able lad when young so I suppose he might once have thought that lying was necessary only for rather dim politicians. Like Blair. (But unlike Slick Willie who obviously remained a quick-witted, dishonest teenager throughout life.)
Blair and the Clintons “Redacted the Truth” ….
If they were caught in what us ordinary folks would call a Lie, they invoked Narrative, and ( they themselves or their Spin Doctors ) spun some more lies, with tossing in a “Hey! There’s a Squirrel!” here and there.
Habitual Lying? To us, yes. To Them? “Politics” and “Debate”.
They’re simply a successful version of the poor sods I encountered during my stint as homeless bum.
*Amazing* what they can convince themselves of. The usual targets here in the Graun and in Ely are rank amateurs, really..
And you *need* to be utterly convinced of your “right” to lie convincingly to a crowd.. Which is what most politicians *do* for a living…
The phrase you need is: “to be economical with the actualité”.
Made infamous in a yet another case of our establishment being prepared to dump on its own citizens to save their own skin.
https://wordhistories.net/2024/03/20/economical-with-actualite/
And I shall always be Beat by the Barstards who actually *live* in your dystopia… ;P
Damn you Native English Speakers!! I shall apply to the UN to have this Unequality Officlally Condemned….
Or something like that… Should be a Grauniad Column… 😉
My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the workings of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby.
Steve loves a bad boy.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/farage-s-mistress-attempted-suicide-after-fight-with-his-wife-9511823.html
She tried to use Tottie hard enough for the Wife to notice**, got tossed out, and is now playing the Suicide Card, despite having on record a history of Depression for *over 9 years* …
But it’s Nige’s Fault of course…
Farage Derangement Syndrome in all its glorious futile action.
** Farage can’t have reciprocated…. He’s not secure/powerful enough to get away with it, not stupid enough, and Wifey is secure and agressive enough in her “position” that she *can* have attempted Tottie thrown out unceremoniously.
More points for Team Farage, really….
“Wife defends Hubbie against CrazyBat Scandal Generator” doesn’t actually make a good headline and doesn’t play the Pity Card..
The whole premise of Aditya’s article is wrong. Trump is first and foremost, not a politician. He is a businessman and entertainer. His midnight, all-caps tweets are as close to hearing what he thinks as anyone will ever get.
Trump has been accused by Musk of being in the Epstein Files. Hmmm.
I heard you are in the Pedo Files
The except from the Epstein Files is probably “That fucker Trump told me to fuck off and never darken his door.”
The “best” they’ve been able to dig up so far is that Trump *was* part of the Circle of People when Epstein was at the height of his power as *financier* and Middleman.
As …basically anyone who was anyone, with maybe a separation around Party Lines, at the time.
But then again, at the time Trump was simply one of the many Moguls with Political Aspirations. One of Many..
Dunno if there’s Stuff on the Playboy Mansion, but I have no doubt Trump has been a Guest there as well. As well as in the Abode of Larry Ellyson..
You didn’t Count as a Businessman if you *werent’* Invited to the Playboy Mansion and/or Hustler Central in the 80’s to No(a)ghties. And everybody Knew It.
But well before the whole Bruhaha Trump is clearly already moving away from Epstein as “Not Your Best Bet”.
The rather Offended tantrums Epstein throws in Trumps’ direction are a rather good hint. Epstein *wasn’t* Pleased with Trump “taking distance”..
Not that this ever will fly with the TDR crowd… They’d use his first fumbled attempts at seduction as “ammo” as “attempted rape” if they had a record of it.
And let’s be fair… our first hamfisted attempts at Scoring Girls *would* class as “Attempted Rape” by either current law, or the Wishful Thinking of the FemiNazis…
The impression I get from Trump is that he likes Proper Big Girls, not teenagers. All three of his wives are serious women who probably need a bit of handling. Er, as it were.
And proven to be.. Decades ago… Y’know… When the Playboy Mansion was still going strong… And Hooters was a Thing. And….
Incidentally … The male bit of “the Clintooooons” features quite a bit in there as well.. But no doubt simply stating “I did not have sex with these women” would be enough for him…. Right?…
You dimwit! Do you honestly believe that had Trump been in any way compromised by the Epstein files – which were in Democrat hands for at least the previous four years – that the details wouldn’t have been plastered all over the MSM during the Presidential election campaigns??
Someone a while ago talked about celebs getting into trouble on social media, and that it was about the environment. You’re alone, not in a studio and you forget where you are and just dump thoughts like you’re chatting to a mate. If you go into a studio and face people, your brain exercises caution.
A lot of the stuff Trump tweets is like this. He brain dumps and everyone thinks it’s serious policy.
Nothing he says can be taken at face value; everything should be fed into a polygraph.
What a curious statement & mark of utter ignorance.It would be the politician would be put on the polygraph. It would show what his bio-metrics were when he’s lying, if you’d first established a truth baseline for comparison. If in fact polygraphs even work.