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Former Joint Intelligence Committee chief Sir John Scarlett told the Iraq inquiry this week that there had been "absolutely no conscious intention to manipulate the language or to obfuscate or to create a misunderstanding as to what this might refer to". Or just someone with their head up their arse?
Why not just say "we didn't set out to deceive"?
I know the answer btw....
I know the answer btw....
It's a rhetorical question then.
Why not just say "we didn't set out to deceive"?
Because it doesn't necessarily have the same meaning?
He may well have been being ironic but by adding [i]"Or just someone with their head up their arse?"[/i] possibly just concedes that he is more literate than you?
Being literate and being a good communicator are two very different things though.
True 😉
Because denying it multiple times in the same sentence makes it appear to be a more emphatic denial?
Politicians often repeat points like that, though it works a lot better in speech where they will leaves gaps and get sterner with each repetition.
Also "we didn't set out to deceive" would be an admission that they did decieve.