A few years ago, okay more than two decades ago (I have a birthday on Monday and I am quite stunned by how old I have become without noticing), I was asked to give a talk to a group of fresh-faced students at what was
South newspaper, or something.
A line from my talk that I remember most vividly is that particular attention should be paid to what politicians say, what they don’t say, the silences between statements, and the invidious manipulation of language through euphemism, “planting” of ideas in the minds of an audience, and thereby inciting them (the audience) to draw “the right” conclusions and act accordingly.