Politics today is all showmanship and half truths, I'm an oldie and common sense tells me that neither Churchill nor Attlee would get any votes at all in a modern election, They are simply not ' good enough looking' ! The day that the UK could have any significant effect upon the rest of the world is on a high speed downward slope. Would that our politicians realised this, and looked after our population, especially future secure food supplies and our defence.

David Vinter, Louth, Lincs., UK.

Lets get to the heart of the problem. The spin and 'veneer politics' didn't start in 1997 - but it got very much worse and is now viewed in the same way as dramatic art or 'perception' marketing. But do we pay our taxes to be gently misled (or as some broadcasters were saying about their problems this week) told ' a white lie' ? Our current leaders promised a different type of government. In the end it was only talk ! Now Mr Brown has to distance himself from his recent past in order to win elections and this week he proved that offering the public a new veneer can work !! Mr Cameron appears to be offering himself as the heir to Blairism at a time when Blair has been rejected ! Poor timing Dave - you were given awful advice. Perhaps Mr Cameron and Mr Brown should explore Matthew's biblical theme while attending church services this week. 'In the last days, good will be called evil, and evil will be called good '. We hope and pray !!

Dave, Swindon, Wiltshire

Though I think that this is an excellent commentary, I think that the demise of "truth" just is the exercise of power through politics. I think that the problem should be seen in the context of unintelligent media consumerism: although moral responsibility for whatsoever is put in the public arena should certainly lie with, in these cases, the politicians and media networks, there is nonetheless a responsibility on the public to be discriminating in there belief of any particular news or source. This is a complex skill but one which I hope will become more refined with the explosion in the quantity of published information - the inflation in the value of information should precipitate the rise in value of reliable (and in some sense truthful) sources.

Nathaniel, London, UK

That must be why so many middle-aged Muscovite men make a healthy living pretending to be young nubile women writing passionate letters to tired and lonely Western businessmen, then, Alice....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

The reason that Cameron's makeover of the Tories is not working is because the public are not as stupid as they are assumed to be. We all know, or at least many of us know, that there are many good and well intentioned people in the Conservative Party who genuinely want to help the less fortunate and forge a better society for all. The fact is that there is a general and persistent prejudice against Tories. Cameron's answer to that has been to try to re-model the party, to change the image in the same way that Blair did with new Labour. But his attempts to do so have been seen through for what they are. This is clumsy and unconvincing PR, flashy graphics and stunts and nothing more. Labour got away with it in the 90s because people were sick of the Tories. But people respect Gordon Brown even if they don't like him.

The Tories need to rediscover their convictions and to talk about them proudly, not pretend to be something they're not. People respect that even if they don't agree.

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

As long as it is not 'Politically Correct' to observe that not everyone who has a British passport is as British as the next man, it is pointless talking about truth. The BBC we all know is the propaganda ministry of the left-wing. That it is also willing to compromise with fair play in a lottery should not surprise us nor that its producers seek to ridicule the Queen. Cameron, though, is the biggest loser; he has been shown to be not only a fraud but a loser too.

Adrian Gilbert, Tonbridge, England

Honesty is the unacceptable face of truth, so much so that we prefer to deal in lies. This is not restricted to politics or media, but is rife throughout our society. We have to be careful of what we say, what we think and what we do in case it is misinterpreted by our peers which ultimately leads to vilification. At an early age we are lied to by our parents (possibly the ultimate betrayal) when we are told about the tooth fairy, santa claus and God. Only to find later in life that these three do not exist. Our journey through life is founded on deception, what we think people want to hear as opposed to truth. It has always been thus and it will never change. How can it? It is not what the people want. They have spoken, they have chosen. Our species is now entering it's old age, senility beckons if it is not already upon us. It would be nice to think our species can die out gracefully, but we all know this is fantasy. Truth is a relic of the long distant past.

James Hodgson, Liverpool,

This is an age-old debate. What is really happening here is that we are becoming conscious of manipulation. There are millions of facts -- the act of choosing among them is itself manipulation. It seems overwhelming, but it is the reality. So deal with it.

Erik, Berkeley, CA, USA

What a brave and intelligent analysis. Thanks for such a clear articulation.

We need to understand and grasp the opportunity for authenticity to be a defining value today before its meaning is twisted by ill-intentioned spinners.

Antony M, Hove, UK

Know the truth ,and the truth will set you free.

james currie, London,

Matthew Paris has made a superficial reference to Pontius Pilate without actually re-reading the trial of Jesus in the New Testament. Had he done so, he would have found, ironically, in Matthew's Gospel that Pilate certainly had to deal with the equivalent of television editing in his own day: when he asked for a formal statement of the accusation against Jesus, the prosecution skipped the accusation and cut straight to stirring up a public outcry, demanding the execution of Jesus (Matt. XXVII, 23).

Edmund Burke, Kingston upon Thames, England

If you can fake authenticity then you have got it made!!

Stephen Walkley, Lutterworth, UK

To Alice in Moscow - I'm glad you like living in Russia. Just don't criticise the government, or you'll soon learn the flip side of WYSIWYG.

James, London, UK

Amazing how quickly we forget the sleaze of the Tory years in power or how Mrs Thatcher ennobled so many deserving people who just happened to contribute large sums to the Tory party. Politics has always been a dirty business and will remain so while any prime minister has so much patronage at his disposal. I well recall Mrs Thatcher's press secretary being described as a sewer by a very senior Tory MP. I can still see the noble Lord Jeffrey Archer on the platform making his bid to be the London Mayor and a beaming Mrs Thatcher lapping up every word of his speech.

Alan Lewis, Bangkok, Thailand

And democracy is dead.
All we have now is cynical manipulation of the unreasoning majority, who are convinced of the "validity" of their received, (manufactured) views.

John Maynard, Cranbrook, UK

"Appearance is the new reality"

Guess again, Mr. Parris. There's nothing new about appearances being sold as reality. One need only look any Egyptian pyramid to understand this.

TJ Cassidy, Arlington, Virginia, USA

By the way, Alice, I lived in Moscow in Soviet times, and I went through agonies trying to explain to British people the special quality of Russians and how liberating it was to be with them. You have captured it in a nutshell. Even then, long before the Blair era and even the Thatcher era, it was painful coming back to Britain where people are somehow, well, not rooted in reality, always trying to be something else than what they are. For the most part Russians are themselves, warts and all.

Trofim, Birmingham, UK

Not for the first time, Matthew Parris is correct,the Satanic virus is among us and infiltrating institutions that once repesented unquestionable authenticity.
The Honours System, once associated with public service, whether by philanthropy or equally important the donor's generous time, has now become another part of our Satanic sleaze culture. The BBC, once the symbol of truth, now damaging the old adage that "the camera cannot lie". Even worse, "allegedly" running its own political agenda with no problem of funding, we are the captive paymasters. Finally, David Cameron, who is trying to change the Conservative Party to one of government, without realising that they are there already! Is Gordon Brown a Socialist?
The one buzz-word Matthew left out was "change", from personal experience, sometimes it is best to leave well alone, I suggest I speak for many, preferring the three examples offered as they were, not as they have been repackaged, this man is not buying.

M. Fishman, London,

Perhaps authencity is a bit like happiness. It is the by-product of a good life. To go for it direct is to find yourself having to fake it. What the good life might be is the real question and thing we have lost.

Mark Vernon, London,

Even before Cameron's assumption of the Conservative leadership the early symptoms were present in the party, shown by such as Bercow(a favourite of the anti-tory BBC) , May, Maude but this did not develop into the full-blown auto-immune disease until the Cameroons took over. Then the machine cranked up its undeclared civil war on its activists, a new logo painted on the suffering old thing. It does not seem to be working; the siren 'modern' voices were wrong.

Dr J Findlater, arnforth,

When there are floods in England Blair II is in Rwanda doing what The Artful Dodger did so well......Being There....when he should have been Here.

We had one globetrotting Prime Minister.....we do not want another Bagman for Geldof

TomTom, Leeds, England

Alice

On the whole ordinary people everywhere are the same. The problem in the UK is that our political leaders have adopted american methods of showmanship, sleaze and spin. The public has become more and more disallusioned and cynical. We need to get back to honesty and trust as the bedrock of our poltical arena.

Hamad lone, Thornton Heath, England

A truth plainly told. This is the age of the Lie. Thanks for the article.

david, auckland,

Mathew, have you not heard? Truth has been deconstructed, declared obsolete, kicked out - banned. We now have something called new improved relativism - truth is whatever you reckon it is.

Jack, UK,

Same applies to Poland Alice - my in-laws are Polish !!!

IAN PAYNE, Lichfield, STAFFS

Since living in Moscow, I've discovered that the Russian people are largely 'real' or authentic compared with people in the West. They are WSYWIG people = what you see is what you get. It is what being human is all about. It is so very comfortable to be allowed to be me without trying to be fake. I do recommend it.

Alice, Moscow,