Promise, comments and when we said...

In 2011 David Cameron in true Blue Tory style announced: “But with us, our borders will be under control and immigration will be at levels our country can manage. No ifs. No buts. That’s a promise we made to the British people, and it’s a promise we are keeping.”

OK, let’s give the PM a bit of political licence, after all this was said within the first year or so of a new government. That period of time when they still feel confident enough to use rash terms such ‘promise’.

Fast forward three and a bit years; in a period six months before a general election and suddenly words such as ‘promise’ become impossible to say. On the Today programme on Radio 4 today the home secretary, Theresa May, downgraded a promise made by the PM in 2011, to a ‘comment’ and ‘when we said…’.

“When we made that comment, when we said … we would be aiming to bring the net migration down to the tens of thousands and we wanted to do that within this parliament – yes we were very clear that was what we wanted to do.”

Theresa May, longest serving Home Secretary, but what promised to be a promising
career could be ruined because she could not get herself to utter the word 'promise'

Dissemble, dissimulate, mislead, cover up, deny, deceive, lie, fib and tell porkies as much as you want Ms May. We could all tell you where lying this morning. You know how we knew? Your lips were moving. Always a sure sign that a politician is dissembling, dissimulating, misleading, covering up, denying, deceiving, lying, fibbing or telling porkies.

The fact it was on the radio is immaterial as the above is a given; a truth universally acknowledged.