Gavin Williamson “swearing on his DCs’ life”

[Loopytiles]

Sacked defence secretary says he didn’t leak from the National Security council, and reportedly “swore on his DCs’ life”.

I’m generally cynical and am no fan of Mr Williamson, but if he said this tend to believe him. It’s a rarely used phrase and not one I imagine parents would use if lying.

Am I being naive? Suppose that unless you’re superstitious, nothing bad will happen to your DC if you say it about a lie.

I think there should be a criminal investigation.

• think Williamson is taking the rap for this on behalf of his department which is how cabinet government is supposed to work after all.

My theory is that his phone was in the hands of one of his bods somehow and they leaked the information. May has sacked him because he is responsible for his department and acting quickly saves face for her because let's face it, she isn't Mrs Popularity at the moment is she?

I do believe Williamson when he says he wasn't the leak but someone within his dept is*

This. It was almost definitely a member of his office, and I'm fairly confident who it is because they have done it before. GW, however, is ultimately responsible for their actions. Rightly so.

He is ridiculous. How childish. He should have his iPhone confiscated and be grounded for a month.

This made me laugh:

twitter.com/GavinWilliamson/status/1124062179119050755

The other day he tried to hide being his kids but that didn't go down well so now he's trying "awwww, lovely doggies".

Ugh, I am not superstitious but I hate this phrase. If you must swear on anyone's life (which is a pathetic turn of phrase and has been overused to the point of being utterly trite, which is just wrong) then swear on your own- your children are not your possessions.
If you're really going to go for it with the swearing-on-life thing, then Ronnie Flanagan's offer to resign and then commit suicide in public is probably the way forward.

My ex looked me in the eye and swore on his sons life he wasn't having an affair.
10 hours later his mistress text him telling him how much she missed him and I saw it.
He was a liar and a coward. I suspect Williamson is the same.

Gin, nice try , but evidence is, after the meeting, Mr W had a telephone conversation with the Daily Telegraph journalist who wrote the story. He's trying hard on the 'I must protect my staff' line which makes him even more suspect in my eyes.

Swearing on someone's life is the last resort of a liar

It just sounds overdramatic to me. I thought he was definitely lying when I saw he said this

Ex partner used to swear on his daughters life he wasn't cheating. He was.

It's not as though swearing on your kids life is a legally binding contract, he won't have to hand them over if it turns out he was lying.

I agree there should be a criminal investigation but the fact that he said this has no impact on whether I believe him or not. It's an awful phrase.

Actually the huge ruckus he is making over this has made me wonder if he is innocent. But I get the impression from lots of political commentators that he has been very Machiavellian in the past, and what we are seeing is the righteous indignation of someone who didn't do it directly himself this time.

Or he is bald-faced lying sociopath, which isn't all unbelievable. Either way, political jobs are not like normal jobs. If TM has lost confidence in him, he goes.

Here is some good gossip about GW: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/02/how-will-history-judge-gavin-williamson#comment-128608809

He is bold-faced lying sociopath. It's very possible. I'm sure we've all come across people like that in our lives.

He is lying

As soon as that line is uttered you know someone is trying to hide something as they are trying to deflect on what the discussion is about

See we are not talking about him swearing on his children’s lives not what he was originally not being honest about

We are talking ...

How on earth does any adult think that someone swearing on their children’s lives makes them more credible, rather than less? If it were an indication of undoubtable honesty, why would we need a legal system at all? A criminal trial could just consist of asking people to swear on their children’s lives to determine whether or not they were a murderer/rapist/fraudster etc. It’s a phrase which signals that a person is quite stupid, but it most definitely doesn’t indicate that they are honest.

It’s a phrase which signals that a person is quite stupid, but it most definitely doesn’t indicate that they are honest.

It sounds impressive, but is utterly meaningless and insincere, a vengeful god isn't going to strike you children down or the person you've lied to doesn't get to shoot your kids as revenge.

It sounds childish. In my youth people used to 'swear on the Holy Bible' to try to give what they were saying credibility. It doesn't work.