@upthecreekyetagain wrote:
Lambsy
That is precisely the point I was trying to make - whatever a politician says or writes down in terms of policy can be taken as a promise or pledge, normally with the intention of gaining votes or can be described by others when the policies don't come to fruition as excusable because they were only aims or circumstances have changed.
Essentially it does come down to semantics or the meaning of a particular statement. When the leader of a political party announces on national television that, "We have absolutely no plans to raise VAT", just days before a General Election then I take the meaning of that statement as a promise not to raise VAT - I certainly consider it a "broken promise", (or at the very least deception), when the Chancellor announces just 7 weeks after the General Election that VAT will be increased.
You can argue semantically that it is possible plans changed in less than two months over something so basic - personally I consider that a broken promise.
No they can't be taken as promises or pleadges unless it is stated they are promises or pleadges! Anyone who views an aim as a pledge is very misguided! Because circumsatances change is the reason politicians make few promises, one has to be daft not to appreciate this!
If you take a statement saying "we have no plans to" to mean "we promise not to" then I'm afraid you're misguided and a victim of your own misjudgement. I fail to see how you can consider it to be a broken promise when a promise was never made!
You may take it to be a broken promise which all well and good, but also wrong!!!
I suppose you could argue that politicians should recognise that many of the electorate struggle to comprehend what is being said and should therefore perhaps reiterate all they say, but I doubt this would make much difference!
70soghuBMoj(ld!L!~~_7.JPG "merehazle"){kind=avatar}
7ryMJjyBMgowKMZdQ~~_7.JPG "cee-dee"){kind=avatar}
