Politicians unable to speak ‘fluent human’
The BBC’s outgoing political editor Andrew Marr has criticised MPs for failing to communicate effectively with voters.
The House of Commons was now filled with MPs wedded to political parties, speaking in political jargon and unable to put across their views in plain English, he said.
Speaking at a summer festival of politics organised by the Scottish parliament, he said this inability to communicate was serious, accusing politicians of a “fundamental lack of professionalism” when it came to communication.
Mr Marr said part of the problem was that so few politicians had any background in public speaking. He contrasted this with politicians from the past who had risen through the rhetorical training grounds of university debating societies and trade unions.
Echoing sentiments expressed by George Orwell over half a century earlier, he said those who came to politics from academia or from research jobs lacked the habit of using “strong, vivid, normal language”.
Mr Marr, who will take over David Frost’s Sunday interview programme later this year, said part of the reason people liked him was because the public needed someone to cut through the obscure jargon-based language.
“That’s why people like me are used on TV bulletins,” he said – politicians were often unable to speak “fluent human”.
“I’m only there, and my colleagues are only there, because they can’t do it properly for themselves.”
He also blamed journalists for offering opinions rather than reporting and said newspapers should report politics in a more serious way.
