Photograph: Bela Szandelszky/APThe extraordinary admission by the Hungarian prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, that "we lied in the morning, we lied in the evening" during his time in power is a rare glimpse into what leaders really think, and is reminiscent of George Bush and Tony Blair's flippant chat at the G8 summit in Moscow about how to solve the crisis in the Middle East, writes Jackie Dent.
The leaked tape of Mr Gyurcsany's speech at a party meeting has prompted violent clashes outside the headquarters of state television in Budapest and calls for Mr Gyurcsany's resignation. But for Preston, a Hungarian living in Scotland, the prime minister's comments are no real shock as " politicians lie all the time, about everything" anyway.
Mr Gyurcsany's Socialist-Liberal coalition was the first government to win re-election in the post-Soviet era. The leak of his speech to party colleagues is now seen by Aldmodozo in Budapest as a wake-up call to Hungary's woeful economic problems
The country, which has the highest budget deficit in the EU, has plans to introduce tough economic reforms, including tax rises. Conspirators are musing that the leaked tape actually came from Mr Gyurcsany's office as a way to justify these reforms, as a full transcript of his speech was posted on his weblog just hours after it aired on Hungarian radio. Are all politicians mad as well?
