November 6, 2025

Nothing in politics is ever as good or as bad as it first appears.

Edward Boyle (1923–1981), English Conservative politician, in William Whitelaw, Memoirs (1989), Jay p.54

What matter did you first see as good, and later bad? Or first see as bad that changed to good? How many such matters in the end fall somewhere in the middle?

Seeing “bad” is frequently a function of (1) political partisanship and of (2) the desire of publishers to sell newspapers, or bloggers to gain subscribers. Of course, things are never as bad because the opposition (the “Loyal” one and any others) and journalists always exaggerate. And so does the government when it has some “good news” to announce. Hyperbole abounds on all sides.