Anne Milton has come in for some stick for suggesting that doctors should be able to use blunt language towards the hypermorphically-challenged. Her context was one of medical advice sought by a patient, rather than the state appearing in your living room to castigate you for a lifestyle choice, so I think her observation was in fact fair enough.
One of the more retrograde shifts over the past few years has been people increasingly being afraid of speaking their mind on sensitive subjects, simply because they are too self-conscious of how to express themselves. I exempt Yorkshire of course, and exclude David Cameron’s unfortunate recent forays into Peter Griffiths diplomacy.
What contrast, however, with the allegation on the front page of today’s Telegraph, to be explored in a documentary later tonight; "Mr Clegg decided weeks before the election that spending cuts were needed immediately, despite telling voters it would jeopardise economic recovery." We’ve heard the line since – political leaders simply didn’t know how bad the deficit was, or how bad the national debt was, or how much it will cost simply to service it. It was a surprise when they got into power. So the reason why the voter wasn’t told was because nobody could have known.
In reality, the scale of the deficit was merely one awkward subject the strategists had decided they would keep off-limits. It had been decided that the electorate didn’t have a right to debate, discuss, or choose. It now transpires the Liberal Democrat leader went further, and was advocating policy he himself always intended to overturn. And we wonder why people don’t trust politicians?
A doctor in his surgery bluntly informing Mr Supersize-me he needs to lose weight or he’ll die is just telling it straight. The same should have been said about the budget deficit, and an informed people should have been trusted to make the right choice. I’ll be tuned in tonight to see what else was planned but never said.
