Quote ="billypop"Why on earth is anyone surprised that their politicians are hypocrites?'"
TBF to Cameron, Blair etc it was much easier to be a hypocrite in the past than it is today, and get away with it because the press were not so intrusive. My hero Attlee went on a round Britain car tour with his wife for a holiday - totally out of touch with "the office" when he was PM. When asked by a reporter if he had any more to add, having just announced the general election date, he said "no" and that was that!
Churchill was p!ssed for much of the time during WWII. He had a stroke in his second term in the 50's, Butler was running the country and we were told by the media that the PM "had a heavy cold"
Eden took us into the Suez adventure when he was high on benzedrine.
The whole abdication scandal was known about all over the world but not in this country , because the compliant press barons, Beaverbrook and Northcliff hushed it up. The Beeb also knew about it but said nothing. It's said that George V'slife was ended prematurely so that it could be reported in the Times the following day, instead of the Evening Standard. We live in a totally different climate today.
The "statesmen" of the past had feet of clay but no one knew about it. So they remained and remain "statesmen"
