26th July 2022
There are perhaps two stages to a close reading of a legal, formal or otherwise considered or negotiated document.
The first stage – sometimes overlooked – is to read what the document actually says (and not what you think or hope it says).
The questions to ask here are: What is the content? How is that content framed and conveyed? What propositions are put forward? How are paragraphs and sentences structured? What words are used?
And so on.
In essence: if thought has gone into compiling a text, thought should also go into reading that text.
The second stage is more difficult.
Here the reader needs to work out not what is said, but what is not said.
Why did the writer not say certain things which they otherwise would have said?
What were the words and phrases and sentences which could have been used, but were not?
Of course: this second stage can be prone to speculation or projection or other forms of (over-)elaborate analysis.
But it can be a useful exercise when one has a document where the wording seems, well, strained or odd.
In short: why does the text say this – and not something else?
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Now we come to a letter that was placed today into the public domain.
The letter is from the current (and departing) Prime Minister Boris Johnson and it is on his official headed paper.
You can read the letter here.
The portion of the letter with which this blogpost is concerned is that under “Question 41“.
The background to this is as follows: on or about 28 April 2018, Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, attended a social event in Italy where one of the other guests was Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB agent.
He was asked about this when he appeared at the recent liaison committee of the House of Commons on 6 July 2022:
There was a follow-up question:
This was not a comfortable moment for the Prime Minister – and it was at the time he was being forced to announce his upcoming departure as Prime Minister.
You will see from the exchanges above that Johnson said he would write to the committee – but in any case the chair of the committee wrote to the Prime Minister on 8 July 2022 expressly asking for – among other things – the Prime Minister to write on the matter of:
“Whether you met with Alexander Lebedev on 28 April 2018 without officials, and whether officials were subsequently informed of the meeting”
The question being asked was plain – and precise.
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In his letter dated 21 July 2022 (and published by the committee today) devotes over a page of a four-page letter to responding to this question:
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You will see the response to the question asked comprises twelve paragraphs.
And you will see that from the fifth paragraph onwards, the information provided is not the information requested.
Indeed, if you look at the final paragraph, the Prime Minister is providing information about who Labour politicians have met.
Only the first four paragraphs of the response relate to the request and should be read again:
You can read these paragraphs as well as anyone, and it is worth taking time to read what they say.
And what they do not say.
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For some reason, there is no mention of Alexander Lebedev by name – he is instead alluded to as “Evgeny Lebedev’s father”.
Johnson was asked both in the committee and in the chair’s subsequent letter whether officials were subsequently informed of the meeting.
Johnson’s letter places emphasis on a notification made about hospitality and that officials were “aware” in advance that he was attending.
You will see both the notification and the “aware” comment are about the social event generally – and not the meeting with Alexander Lebedev in particular.
Johnson cannot bring himself to say plainly that officials were not subsequently informed of the meeting with Alexander Lebedev.
The admission is instead buried in the following text:
In plain language: the Prime Minister did not subsequently notify officials of his meeting with Alexander Lebedev.
Johnson seeks to misdirect the reader with mentions of a notification about hospitality and officials being “aware” in advance of the social event generally, but the answer to the straight question is that he did not notify officials.
Indeed, there is no reason to believe from the content of this letter that officials were aware in advance that Alexander Lebedev would be in attendance.
Johnson further states the meeting with Alexander Lebedev was “not a formal meeting, nor something that was pre-arranged”.
This wording is odd.
That it was not “a formal meeting” is no more than a tautology that this was a social event – it is not a new point, but a dressing up of a point already made.
And that the meeting was not “pre-arranged” does not preclude the meeting as being expected.
Johnson does not say he was surprised to see Alexander Lebedev, which he could have said.
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The most remarkable phrase in the letter, however, is that “[a]s far as I am aware, no Government business was discussed”.
That formulation is strained in the extreme, as it would be within the Prime Minister’s knowledge what was discussed and what was not.
The “[a]s far as I am aware” proviso makes sense in a formal document when a person cannot have complete knowledge of a thing themselves.
But Johnson would presumably have complete knowledge of what he said.
Note also the Prime Minister does not simply say “[N]o Government business was discussed”.
If the Prime Minister could have said just that, he would have done so – and put the matter beyond any doubt.
But he did not say that, and that is presumably because he cannot say that.
He also does not use the more common “[a]s far as I can recollect” proviso.
The only reasonable explanation for the proviso “[a]s far as I am aware” in that statement is that the Prime Minister is aware of the possibility that government business was discussed, and so he does not want to be pinned down to a more committed answer that could mislead parliament.
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In summary, Boris Johnson did not notify officials that he had met Alexander Lebedev, and he cannot recall exactly what was discussed.
That is the only sensible interpretation and construction on the letter he has sent to the liaison committee, even though the letter goes out of its way not to mention Alexander Lebedev, and goes out of its way not to say expressly that officials were not subsequently notified, and goes out of its way to implicitly accept government business may have been discussed.
Instead of the twelve paragraphs of misdirection and waffle he could have said:
“I did not notify officials that I had met Alexander Lebedev, and I cannot recall exactly what was discussed.”
Instead, none of the information which the committee asked for directly is provided directly.
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There is something strange and worrying here.
If the meeting in Italy was straightforward and above board, then the response published today would also have been straightforward and open.
But the response was not – and that presumably is because the meeting was not.
Curious stuff.
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