It is important that politicians defend their ability to act without fear or favour, and it is in the public interest that they hold ministers and public servants to account.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Politicians around the world are very different, but they all have one thing in common: The first thing they respond to is public opinion.
Any politician in a democracy has to be mindful of public opinion.
It is a universal and fundamental political principle that the power to protect can safely be confided only to those interested in protecting, or their responsible agents - a maxim not less true in private than in public affairs.
I would argue that one of the issues which the public should be much more emphatic about with all politicians... is patronage, appointing people to high positions because they supported your campaign or helped you raise money.
I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.
The politician and the government expert receive their revenues, not from service voluntarily purchased on the market, but from a compulsory levy on the populace. These officials, therefore, wholly lack the pecuniary incentive to care about serving the public properly and competently.
Politics is an act of faith; you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public.
It's not just politicians. Any spokesman for a vested interest is well schooled in how to say what it is they wish to say, which may bear no relation at all to what you've asked them.
Politicians are strong to the extent that they are ready to take serious decisions and fight for it.
There is one rule for politicians all over the world: Don't say in Power what you say in opposition; if you do, you only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.