When no means yes!

I have some sympathy with Mr Abbott, who yesterday (perhaps foolishly) admitted to Kerry O'Brien, that what came out of his mouth was not necessarily perfectly formed.

As a person who quite often "thinks with his mouth" I sort of know what he means.

TONY ABBOTT: Well, again Kerry, I know politicians are gonna be judged on everything they say, but sometimes, in the heat of discussion, you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark, which is one of the reasons why the statements that need to be taken absolutely as gospel truth is those carefully prepared scripted remarks.

Kerry rightly questioned this

KERRY O'BRIEN: So every time you make a statement, we have to ask you whether it's carefully prepared and scripted or whether it's just something on the fly? No, seriously; this is a very serious question.

But it's dangerous territory for all concerned.

It is interesting that the Opposition (eg Joe Hockey on Q&A lauded this sort of recklessness as "straight talking") but as O'Brien remarked does this mean "there will be no new taxes", and "is Work Choices in or out". This is rather like the malleable world of "core" and "non-core" promises.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out