The allergic reaction of the media and pundits to a politician giving a direct, honest answer

You know what the problem is with British politics? It’s too many politicians give direct, honest answers to questions. So the right way to respond to one of them doing so is to ridicule them immediately, mocking their lack of forethought and point out how it’s not the right move for any sensible person.

Oh hang on…

But the allergic reaction to a politician giving an honest answer isn’t the worst of it.

Because following Cameron’s answer that he doesn’t want to serve a third term has been a whole host of 100% self-confident assertions about what this means for 2020, such as how he can’t possibly serve a full term because he’d have to stand down in time to allow someone else to take over and be PM for a while.

As if the idea of an incumbent head of the government staying in post to hand over to a successor at election time is completely unthinkable. So unthinkable of course that this never happens anywhere else in the world ever… (spoiler: it does) – and glossing over too how many pundits were 100% self-confident in 2010 that a coalition wouldn’t last for 5 years.

Perhaps after that chorus of faulty predictions, the wiser response to a politician being honest would have been not only to welcome it but also to show a little less myopia and a little more self-humility at the ability to predict what it means?

UPDATE:
Voters 2 – Pundits 0