Comment at end
8th October, 2007
“Honest to Gord”
Many years ago, it hit me. In a flash, I recognised the intrinsic weakness of this phrase – “to be honest …”
It sounds good and straightforward, but in fact can easily be turned completely against the speaker. It has a self destruct capacity and should be banned from politicians’ lexicons.
Why? Well, because its very utterance hints that one is not ALWAYS honest; or that some of the time, one bends the truth.
I hadn’t thought about it for years – and I can’t remember any other politician using it recently – but now, all of a sudden it’s become Brown’s phrase.
He used it a couple of times in his Andrew Marr interview on Sunday, “to be honest” - WHAT? Aren’t you always, Mr Prime Minister?
And in his Downing Street Press Conference, there it was AGAIN … “if I were honest with you”.
“My first instinct, if I were honest with all of you, was that I wanted to get on with my job of putting my vision of what the future of the country was to the people of the country and deliver on it before there was ever an election.”
Please, Mr GB/PM – Stop it!
We KNOW you’re as honest as the day is long. I know it’s only a figure of speech, but words can change the world – “the pen is mightier …” etc
You really should avoid implanting the thought in our minds that maybe, just maybe, honesty is a dish served only occasionally.
SHOULD IT BE ABOUT CHARACTER?
Brown is now feeling the pain of being attacked, vilified, criticised endlessly on character, integrity, motive, policy, leadership as was his predecessor.
Being called “the master spinner – the tactical/strategical genius behind Blair & Mandelson”, by his biographer, won’t help.
Tags: honest gordon brown election iraq parliament press conf
