Quote Originally Posted by lardy View Post
One of the worst phrases of recent years is 'playing party politics'. It's the easiest way to try to shut down someone that you don't agree with. Just say they're playing politics. It's meaningless enough that you don't have to justify it.
I listened to an interview with Matt Hancock on Radio 5 Live last night, where he accused Andy Burnham of playing party politics five times while continuously saying that we should all join together in the national interest the same amount of times. Presumably, his take on the "national interest" is that everyone should fall into line with the UK Government's view on things, so isn't he just playing party politics as well?

Hancock's repetitive interview was an example of the woeful standard of political debating on both sides of this argument - continuously repeating yourself does not prove you're right.