‘Telling it like it is’ appeals to the middle-aged man of few words

YOU might not think that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, US president Donald Trump and Peter Casey, a former candidate for the Irish presidency, have that much in common, but they frequently attract the same compliment: They tell it like it is, writes Terry Prone.

Now, there’s imprecision in this heartfelt encomium. Without sounding too much like former US president Bill Clinton, and in the interests of clarity, we need to ask who decides what ‘it’ is. Or, in novelist Martin Amis’s words, “telling what like what is?” Because when the Taoiseach tells it like it is, it sure isn’t the same thing as when Peter Casey tells it. So who is it that sees the great commonality between these three guys? And what is wrong with that person?

Anyone — like I do — who chairs a lot of seminars and conferences, looks forward, with a night-before-Christmas excitement, to the supporter of the tell-it-like-it-is person identifying themselves during the question-and-answer section. When they do, it’s like a small-scale Mexican wave goes through the rest of the audience.