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Politician with fingers crossed behind their back
Government and politics

Slippery politicians?

Peter Bull on the strategic use of evasive talk in the corridors of power.

18 November 2003

Politicians are often castigated for their evasiveness in political interviews as the sort of people who can never give a straight answer to a straight question. But are the questions in political interviews always so straight? To what extent is the evasiveness of politicians a response to the kinds of question they receive? Are slippery politicians simply forced down a conversational cul-de-sac by equally slippery political interviewers?

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