Costing promises

Aspects of my work life involved preparing statutory documents as a director of a listed company, including statements on behalf of the chairman and CEO, reports about performance, policy and future intentions for the business.

Before informing the Stock Market and open publication, everything I wrote had to be checked and double-checked by lawyers, brokers, accountants and PR consultants.

No statement could be made public without this process. Anything that could potentially influence investment decisions by shareholders had to be verified, all sources declared, promises substantiated, otherwise I risked being prosecuted for misleading the public.

I was certainly not allowed to paint promises on the side of a bus, nor could I have said, “Sorry, I’m off to lunch,” if pursued by the media wanting to know how I was going to fund promises.

Yet, in recent times I’ve seen Brexiteers promise millions of pounds to the NHS and this week John Mcdonnell, our so called ‘Chancellor-in-waiting’, refuse to reveal how he would fund PFI breakups as he couldn’t stomach the question before lunch.

Why are my relatively immaterial words denied publication before being substantiated, while politicians can say and promise what they like without first being subjected to thorough scrutiny?

Yet their misplaced views and exaggerated promises influence decisions by a far, far wider audience than I could reach. It would appear to me that we have long-since entered a world where it has become perfectly acceptable, for some, to ‘lie today and ignore tomorrow’ and that surely has to change, please. GORDON Y WATSON Drumsheugh Gardens,

Edinburgh