QT
I've started watching Question Time again after a lengthy hiatus. A couple of observations on last night's enjoyable programme:
David Cameron didn't fall for the old 'exclusion by denial' trick. When asked if he had ever taken Class A drugs at university, he refused to answer even though he probably could have denied it, because if you deny everything you haven't done, a process of exclusion means that 'no comment' on anything else becomes the same as a 'yes'. George Bush fell for this one a few years back when denying cocaine abuse, as I recall.
Ben Bradshaw, the Labour minister attending, was creepy in his talking points. He brought up the worst of all Blair/Bush arguments, the 'right to life trumps the right to liberty' one. That is, because there is a possibility that a policy may save the life of someone, somewhere, any incidental effects on rights or freedoms are irrelevant. By extension, virtually anything can be justified in order to preserve this 'right to life'. Grrr.
David Cameron didn't fall for the old 'exclusion by denial' trick. When asked if he had ever taken Class A drugs at university, he refused to answer even though he probably could have denied it, because if you deny everything you haven't done, a process of exclusion means that 'no comment' on anything else becomes the same as a 'yes'. George Bush fell for this one a few years back when denying cocaine abuse, as I recall.
Ben Bradshaw, the Labour minister attending, was creepy in his talking points. He brought up the worst of all Blair/Bush arguments, the 'right to life trumps the right to liberty' one. That is, because there is a possibility that a policy may save the life of someone, somewhere, any incidental effects on rights or freedoms are irrelevant. By extension, virtually anything can be justified in order to preserve this 'right to life'. Grrr.