Doublethink

Mr McConnell is well able to hold in his mind two contradictory ideas and to believe them both. Here is an extract from yesterday's FMQs:

The First Minister: It is entirely proper to take the right and balanced view of the issue. The work that was put into the Burt commission's report needs to be read, analysed and considered seriously by ministers. I am sure that, as a result, it will form part of the debate at next year's Scottish elections.
I believe that the commission's principal conclusion would be unacceptable to Scotland. I said so on the day of publication and I say so again today. That does not mean, however, that the considerable analysis and consideration that the commission put into its work on local government finance should be either dismissed out of hand or accepted without proper consideration. We will do that in proper time.

So there you go. Don't dismiss out of hand or accept without proper consideration. Except when it comes to the principal conclusion where it is entirely appropriate to dismiss it out of hand, even before the report has been published.

Doh!