The “National Interest’

Have you ever wondered what this phrase means?

I often read of journalists who demand that their sleazy story is given front page priority because it is ‘in the National Interest‘.    I see prosecutions of influential people being stifled or kept secret ‘in the National Interest ‘.     Now today in our leading newspapers I am told that the legal adviser of the Government is refusing to give to Parliament the full legal advice on the deal to leave the EU arguing that it’s not ‘in the National Interest‘.

I’m naive. I know it. I thought it was Parliament that governed the country. Apparently it’s actually only a small but ever changing group of right leaning autocrats who decide and who are advised by a legal expert on the consequences of their decisions.    The legal advice they are given is apparently much too sensitive to be released to the rest of the right leaning gang or even those who dress on the other side.

So is the ‘National Interest‘:

1. the need to know who has been dipping his wick in which hole,
2. who is entitled to throw a blanket over which hole he’s been wicking or which funds he’s been dicking with or is it
3. preventing the people who manage the country from having the information they say they need to…. manage the country?

Answers on a postcard please to the usual address or please leave a comment below.