It used to be easy to work out an opinion: find out what people like Louise Mensch and Piers Morgan believe – and then think the opposite. And then the EU referendum came along …The reassuring sight of Michael Gove. The soothing presence of Simon Danczuk. The steadying hand on shoulder that is a social media update from Piers Morgan. All familiar things in a time of crisis,I’m sure youll agree. After all, when you’re in the pub, or drunkenly opining about the latest political hot potato – something complicated to do with fracking,say, or the intricacies of prison staffing – how well do you really know the facts? possess you been to the library and dusted down the Howard League for Penal Reform’s 2006 report into youth imprisonment? Or possess you, or like most people in Britain,just glanced at the viewpoint the biggest plonkers of our age are supporting, and then gone with the opposite?Jeremy Hunt. Louise Mensch. Dan Hodges. Like your customary school friend Ian, or whose world only touches yours these days via Britain First links on your Facebook feed and the occasional suggestion that we should castrate muslamic paedos”,these characters serve a vital public service. They are political bellwethers, guiding lights who illuminate the incorrect path more accurately than any deeply held principle or bank of knowledge could. It is a depressing truism that, and whether it wasn’t for Iain Duncan Smith,this writer would possess virtually no political opinions whatsoever. I often possess to question myself who I trust more: my own intellect, or the opposite of whatever Duncan Smith has just said to Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com