change

Gordon Brown, in his New Year message to Britain, uses a number of hugely divisive weaselly phrases but this one in particular makes me seethe.

In my life, I have learnt that there are only really two kinds of people - those who think things can never change, and those who believe they have to. And I think the vast majority of people are in the second camp.

This is bullshit binary rhetoric that politicians frequently use. Believing things have to change and thinking things can never change are not mutually exclusive and they are not opposites. It is also perfectly possible for people to think things are changing too much or to believe that they don't have to change just for the sake of it. Presenting it as an either/or choice is just wrong.