Caller Tells James O'Brien Politicians Lie For Fear Of Being Called Discriminatory
30 August 2019, 13:53 | Updated: 30 August 2019, 14:06
Ian from Chesham was talking to James O'Brien about why politicians lie and all was going well, until the caller effectively cited the "political correctness gone mad" card.
James O'Brien began the hour talking about a Richard Littlejohn article in the Daily Mail in which the columnist admits to "lovin' it" when hearing "Remoaners . . . squealing like stuck pigs" when discussing Boris Johnson "pretending that proroguing Parliament is all about preparing for the Queen’s Speech."
Referencing two previous callers who both admitted they enjoyed being lied to politicians, it led James to ask callers "how did it come to this?"
When Ian from Chesham called he began by explaining that politicians are "two-faced" for self-preservation purposes, to which the LBC presenter took umbrage saying, "that's not true, there are good people in the House of Commons."
After coming to some form of agreement on the decency MPs, Ian began the second part of his argument about why politicians lie.
He said: "Aren't we ourselves a little bit responsible for why they do it? Both the media and the public, because of the way we jump up and shout when they try to not be, or say something that might be, discriminatory or against a certain group."
James replied: "We were getting on so well, and you're playing the 'political correctness gone mad' card now aren't you?"
The caller denied the accusation, so James asked for an example of something that the caller felt should have been said but had not been for fear of being labelled discriminatory.
Ian used a hypothetical statistic about knife crime and how politicians might be chastised for stating a 'fact' that "Group A is responsible for 98% of knife crime in Britain . . . but don't read anything into that."
James replied: "I think we can all agree that knife crime is a much more prevalent problem among black communities than it is among other communities."
The caller said he was not trying to make that claim, to which James continued: "But why? Why do you think you can't say that? I just proved to you how easy it is."
Ian said: "Because then a politician immediately gets the backlash."
The rest of the conversation saw the caller "tying [himself] up in a silly old knot" as he tried to prove his case that politicians cannot say what they want in public.
