See no evil
Ben Bradshaw, the Health Minister, said that there was no evidence to suggest that ambulances were a major source of infection.
It’s an interesting construction is ‘we have no evidence’. This government use it a lot. What it really means is ‘we haven’t looked and we have no intention of looking’. Tony Blair acted the same way when faced with allegations of John Prescott’s sexual misconduct. Worried about what horrors he might find should he start looking for evidence, he killed the issue by allowing sleeping-around dogs to lie.
You have to be thankful that others - ooh, lets say the police - don’t operate in the same way. The television show CSI would be dull indeed if the forensics team acted like this government.
Homicide cop: ‘There’s been a murder. We think Chuck McSwagger may have done it.’
CSI Person: ‘Nah, there’s no evidence’ (goes back to his Sudoku puzzle).
Posted on December 19th, 2007 at 11:12 am
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You don’t serriously expect the ruling party to undertake something for the greater good that might reveal secrets and make them look bad do you?
Not even anything as extreme as that. A more inquisitive nature should be a minimum requirement.
Except of course when there is no evidence, i.e. 42 days, which the government neatly sidesteps.
There’s plenty of evidence for 42 days. Can’t you see all those brown people wandering about. Free and everything, they are.
Plots, too, don’t forget. There’s plots.
I would normally join in any kicking of government rictus, but having looked at the Times article, what is the evidence?
And your CSI analogy’s odd: surely we should criticise this government for its rather famous inclination to, erm, sex up evidence that was deemed insufficient.
But anyway, good to see Chicken Yoghurt back. The Tom and Jerry was nice too.
It’s also annoying because it has ruined a perfectly good and useful sentence construction. Far too many people turn “no evidence of X” into “evidence of no X”, where the latter is entirely wrong and misleading. But because of sodding New Labour, you won’t be able to say the entirely more accurate former without sounding like a snake.
See no evil in Bethlehem at 4am Christmas Morning.
Cough Rendition flights cough.