by Gordon Craigie

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me” – a comforting wee rhyme to hear from your parents when you were a child, but it wasn’t true then and it certainly isn’t now. Even at a tender age, we could only ever believe it for that specific time when our loved ones were doing their best to protect us from some childhood cruelty, making us momentarily feel better and, in a way, teaching us that we had to toughen up our emotions to defend ourselves against the hurtful words and deeds of others.

But words are important, they carry meaning, even in this era of “fake news” or “post-truth” – aka “lying” – as demonstrated on a daily basis by our expensively (under) educated establishment “masters”. I’m thinking particularly, though not exclusively, here of the oleaginous Gove, the obsolete Rees-Mogg, and all the other over-promoted right-wing lackies serving under whoever it is that actually controls the sock-puppet (current) British Prime Minister, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson… Since it’s unlikely that any of those charlatans are going to change their behaviour any time soon – and why would they since they’re getting away with it unchallenged? – it’s down to all of us to consider their words carefully. Two clichés or truisms immediately spring to mind: “Question – How do you know if a politician is lying?

Answer – Their lips are moving!” and “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” That second truism is actually a quote from the civil rights activist Maya Angelou, who went on to justify that claim by adding, “People know themselves much better than you do. That’s why it’s important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are.” We know that current, and previous, British Nationalist politicians and their acolytes operate on a spectrum ranging from downright lying through sheer duplicity to being economical with the truth, so it’s important to pay careful attention to the words that they use. And to note how those words can change depending on whichever shape-shifting persona they decide to adopt in a specific situation… We’re spoiled for choice if we go looking for examples to illustrate the point, and I’m certain each of you will have your own particular favourites to recall here, but here’s a few to kick us off:

“Once in a generation…” – we all know what’s going on when this old trope is trotted out. We know it originates from a throwaway comment by Alex Salmond during the first independence referendum campaign and forms no part of either the Edinburgh Agreement, which defined the terms formally agreed between the Scottish and UK governments to enable the 2014 referendum, nor the Smith Commission Agreement which amended the Scotland Act in, partial (!), recognition of the outcome of that referendum. Those who like to throw the quote out casually as the prime justification for their opposition to a second referendum are very keen not to acknowledge those facts.