Sir, Daniel Finkelstein (Opinion, May 30) asks why there is a crisis of confidence in politicians. To my mind, the main problem can be traced back to what usually happens whenever a career politician opens his or her mouth.
The rhetoric which passes for debate in the House of Commons is often puerile. Set-piece jokes make me wonder who is running the country while MPs are playing their games. Insults such as “this shows that the Government’s policy is in tatters” are trotted out with such monotonous predictability that there cannot be anyone who finds them enlightening.
Unfortunately, it seems that — with some honourable exceptions — journalists are part of the problem. How many times has a politician been asked a question which has two possible answers: the “wrong” answer which (if offered) will be tomorrow’s headlines and the “safe” answer which (if offered) will tell us absolutely nothing?
Peter Korn
London NW4