Politicians rarely, if ever, admit to being wrong about anything. Instead, they waffle, ignore questions, change the subject or, their most recent wheeze, claim that they 'misspoke'.
Diane Abbott got herself in an awful muddle during an interview on the radio this morning when talking about the cost of one of Labour's latest election pledges. Questioned about the cost of putting an additional 10,000 police officers into action, she said the cost would be £300,000 over 4 years, and then, as she struggled to sort her words out, changed this to £80m; later, it was confirmed that the cost as estimated by the Labour party is £300m.
Putting aside any questions about the details and accuracy of this pledge, Abbott got her facts wrong. However, rather than admit this, she has insisted that she had got the facts right in other interviews and that she 'misspoke' during this particular radio interview.
'Misspoke' ? Checking in my Collins Dictionary, there doesn't appear to be any such word; in other words, it's been invented in order to allow certain people to avoid admitting being wrong. Abbott gave misleading facts to an audience of several million; that isn't 'misspeaking', it's getting things wrong. Why won't she, and others of her ilk, ever use the 'w' word ?
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