14th August 2026
I think that journalists are all asking politicians the wrong question. They should be asking every politician: “What are your priors?”
Instead, they ask “How are you going to pay for it?”
That's the wrong question because a person’s priors are the assumptions they bring to every debate before they even look at the evidence. Those assumptions shape what they believe government can do, what they think markets can achieve, and which policies they consider realistic or impossible.
If we knew a politician's priors, we would know why they think something can or cannot be paid for, so that has to be the question that comes first.
Too often, however, these assumptions remain hidden. Politicians present opinions as facts without explaining the political philosophy that underpins them. As a result, important ideas such as neoliberalism are treated as common sense rather than as viewpoints that deserve to be challenged.
Political economy reminds us that economics is never value-free. Every economic argument reflects assumptions about power, society and who should benefit. If journalists exposed those assumptions, political interviews would become far more revealing and far more honest.
Instead of accepting claims that “there is no alternative”, we could begin debating the alternatives that genuinely exist. Then we might break the political logjam we are in now.