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The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

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THE BOOK OF TELLS<br />

- it's far better to say nothing on the subject, while appearing<br />

to voice an opinion, or to answer a different question<br />

altogether.<br />

Another reason why politicians equivocate so much is<br />

that they don't like being constrained or bossed about by<br />

interviewers. When she was Prime Minister, Margaret<br />

Thatcher was extremely evasive in her answers during<br />

political interviews - much more so, in fact, than Neil<br />

Kinnock, the Leader <strong>of</strong> the Opposition. A big motive for<br />

her equivocation, one suspects, was the desire to show<br />

that she was her own man, and that she was quite capable<br />

<strong>of</strong> setting the agenda for the interview. However, when it<br />

came to closed questions - that is, questions that require<br />

a 'yes' or 'no' answer - she gave many more direct<br />

answers than Neil Kinnock. Far from being inconsistent,<br />

these two findings show how much Margaret Thatcher<br />

liked to play the dominant role - on open questions she<br />

would equivocate in order to show who was boss, while<br />

on closed questions she would give direct answers to<br />

show that she was supremely confident and wasn't<br />

worried about alienating people who disagreed with her. 10<br />

In TV interviews the spotlight is very much on the<br />

politician. After all, it's the politician who does most <strong>of</strong> the<br />

talking and who's on the screen most <strong>of</strong> the time. Because<br />

interviewers play a supporting role, it's natural to assume<br />

that they have less responsibility for what happens during<br />

the interview, or that the interplay between interviewer<br />

and politician isn't important. However, this interplay is<br />

extremely important. It was very evident in the interviews<br />

that took place when Margaret Thatcher was in power. It<br />

was not unusual, for example, for interviewers to interrupt<br />

Margaret Thatcher - in fact she was interrupted more <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

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