Shock horror. Politicians might not tell the truth?

Nick Gardner's very thoughtful comment on whether Prospect or anyone else for that matter is qualified to tell anyone else what to think opens a very interesting line of debate. Do we need or want our media to have a defined voice, slant or tone? Elsewhere on this blog it has been observed that other magazines, for good or bad, have a pre-defined position which they espouse though various devices. Prospect tends not to. David Goodhart is a natural subversive and contrarian. Send him victorious for that alone . . .

However, things took a turn for the worse when sedition and incitement to treachery were attributed to my tongue-in-cheek proposal to 'offer free therapy to anyone who still believes a word that any politician utters'. For starters I don't believe in therapy. But even if I did, exhorting people not to trust politicians? Whatever next? Publishing Muslim cartoons? Assuming Prospect readers have a sense of humour?

Please allow me to reassure Nick or anyone else outraged by this errant slander of a noble elite that I neither expect nor believe anyone to subscribe to one iota of anything I or anyone else connected with our magazine has to say, here or elsewhere. It's a free world, whatever the politicians would have you believe (oops!).

Some western democracies can still put up with a laugh and a joke. DG and I were in a Dublin taxi last December en route to having a very jolly time with our Irish elite mates at the Town Bar and Grill on Kildare St., underneath the chemists. We passed a large Georgian edifice near St Stephen's Green. DG asked what it was. "The largest open prison in Ireland," replied the cabby. It was, of course, the Tithe an Oireacchtais - headquarters of the Dail (1). Arrest that man. Irish politicians corrupt? You'll be telling us that Saudi arms dealers take baksheesh next.

Others can't. I once commented in a taxi outside the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul at 10.50 am on 10 November about Ataturk's legendary drinking and tupping in that very hotel, now a bit blousy but once a temple to western hedonism. My tactless recollection of the apocryphal tale that Ataturk had taken Zaza Gabor's virginity, aged 14 and that her mum had apparently sold her to him, occured at the exact moment when all traffic came to a hornblowing standstill to commemorate the moment of the Father of the Turk's death (aged 57, from cirrhosis as it happens). Unfortunately the taxi driver was an English-speaking ultra nationalist. I walked the last part of the journey to Taksim.

Nick's point is a good one, joshing aside, and he has every right to make it. (2) Believe everything and nothing: you stand as good a chance of losing as the next man. Trust the form and make your own mind up. That's what my dad used to tell me at Leeds greyhound track, back in the day, when gangsters were polite enough to wear Trilbys and fights strictly took place in the car park. And he was a trainer.

(1) Oirishry: Thanks to Kevin Denny for pointing out that the correct name of the building referred to by our taxi driver as 'Tithe an Oireacchtais' is Leinster House. He also observes that Brian Walden once allegedly described Westminster as 'the biggest nick in the country.'

(2) Nick Gardner has quite rightly taken me to task on whether it is fair or accurate to infer that politicians routinely tell lies. It might be more fruitful to question what politicians say, what they are reported to have said and the way they say it to the media. Spin is endemic and evasion has become an acceptable default position. But it would be inaccurate to imply in all seriousness that all politicians routinely tell lies, especially to the House, (not that I did). Some do.

Do you think Prospect presents an impartial view of the world, and does it matter?

JK.

Comments

[Sean Swan]

There is something a bit eclectic about Prospect, but that's no harm. Your lead stories usually hit an important contemporary nerve - from the Union to China to religious demographics. There's no need to assume that in order to be relevant and serious you must also be pompous, humourless and pedantic - something especially true in this Chicken Little like era of carefully cultivated hysteria in politics - there are serious issues facing us, but the end is not neigh - or even 45 minutes away.

[George Hamilton-Meikle]

If we cannot accept/ignor comments from others whether they amuse/bore us we put our minds into prison. How many of the 6m or so Brits are already in that prison?

[Kevin Denny]

Your bit of Oirishy would be be more credible if you got the facts right: "the Tithe an Oireacchtais (sic)- headquarters of the Dail". The building concerned is Leinster House, the location of the Dail (lower house) and indeed the upper house (Seanad). "Tithe an Oireachtais" means Houses of Parliament.Imagine calling Westminister Palace the headquarters of the House of Commons! In any event, its not clear that the bon mot of one taxi driver tells much about anything of consequence.

[Bert Archer]

I've got to say, though I'm only a skiver who gets the free articles you very kindly email to me every month or so, that I'm a little unnerved by this recent show of waywardness and indecision on your part. As I said in the survey, though you may fall out of fashion and favour by following only your own lights, you'll never lose the respect of those whose respect was ever worth having. I, for one, do not want a magazine that wants to know what I want.

[Forone]

Among internet publications, I actually read into the articles selected for "Prospect" and the German compilation "Sign and Sight" because, unlike the more ideologically programmatic ones, I can't predict the "line" from a headline or title. I appreciate this editorial openness and the quality of the authorship, although I also appreciate the ability to scan article titles in other publications to find out what's topical without having to strain my eyes any further.

Re the format of this blog, I agree with someone above who says the latest piece should really be at the top. (By coincidence, "Sign and Sight" has also just permitted commentary attached to its sections, which has its own teething pains.) You might look at the very good format for permitting reader comments on individual articles (stupid contributions, unfortunately, but "Prospect" won't attract any of those) in Canada's Globe and Mail daily newspaper/portal.