The wisdom of honesty??

Listening to Alastair Darling's speech telling us that we are in for a recession made me wonder about the wisdom of honesty in a political system where 'the other sides' are unlikely to applaud him for being candid, hionest, truthful etc.

 Can / Should leaders be entirely truthful in situations where it is almost certainly career limiting?

 On a lighter note I once mentored an MBA student who worked for a ceramic tiling company, making toilet basins etc.  It had troubled him for many years that the company imported the toliet basins from South America, where they had been set in a mould that allowed for a 'substandard flush'.  He had carried the dark secret that his basins flushed one litre less than the British Standard for many a year.

 The MBA 'opened his eyes' and, at 46, he decided that he had 'corporate indigestion'.  He quit his job and started a new career as an academic.  He selected the University of Huddersfield to take a Doctorate in Ethics.  Upon meeting the Professor in Ethics, he was told that he would be able to do some teaching to 'top up' his bursary, which pleased him greatly.

 On arrival at the University some three months later, things progressed as planned and, at the end of term, he enquired as to where his wages were.  The Professor of Ethics told him 'Oh, we say we'll pay you, but we don't really mean that'

 This is perhaps more ironic than a sequence from 'The Office'.