Paxman: Brand was right over public's disgust at 'tawdry pretences' of politics.

[dipsydoodle]

He once asked Michael Howard the same question 12 times and questioned Tony Blair if he was familiar with Megaboobs and Horny Housewives magazines. Now the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, famous for giving ruthlessly short shrift to politicians, has confirmed that his irascible on-screen attitude towards Westminster is more than skin deep.

The rottweiler figurehead of the BBC2 programme gave both barrels to all three main parties in a no-holds-barred column in the Radio Times published on Tuesday.

The presenter, 63, revealed he once did not vote because the choices were so "unappetising" and said politicians' burning desire to order people about was "one of the many reasons they are so odd".

"At the next election we shall have a choice between the people who've given us five years of austerity, the people who left us this mess, and the people who signed public pledges that they wouldn't raise student fees, and then did so – the most blatant lie in recent political history," wrote Paxman.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/05/paxman-politics-russell-brand-voting

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. I can understand him asking the same question a dozen times

If the politician kept dodging it.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Actual interview here

The problem is that all politicians and their spokespersons do exactly the same - convert a question into a speech instead of answering the question. They should all be confined to closed questions requiring a simple yes or no.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Well, there are questions that cannot be answered with 'a simple yes or no'.

I was once called as a witness in a rather complicated fraud case, and the plaintiff's lawyer asked me a question, demanding a 'yes or no' answer. (I will not be more explicit, since it would require a long and rather complex explanation.) I turned to the judge, and said 'Your honor, I took an oath to tell "the whole truth". Neither "yes" nor "no" would be the whole truth. Could you please advise me?" He told me to explain my answer if I felt it necessary. So I took several minutes to give an answer.