Peter Jones

Socrates would have made the leaders’ debates real interrogations

issue 30 November 2019

There is something deeply unsatisfying about the debates featuring party leaders. The questions put to them, whether by an audience or presenter, are the routine ones that they face every day and therefore draw routine responses. What they never get is an interrogation. Enter Socrates, licking his lips.

He once described how a friend of his had asked the oracle at Delphi whether there was anyone wiser than he.

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