Rishi Sunak's silence today speaks volumes
Rishi Sunak's silence today reminds me of this from my favourite play / film, A Man For All Seasons. It is about Henry VIII really needing his friend Sir Thomas More's explicit approval to marry his (Henry's) brother's widow, which was not approved of by the Catholic Church. Henry had appointed Sir Thomas More to be head of the Catholic Church in Britain, which was entirely Catholic at the time. But the King had the power to appoint the head of the Catholic Church in England. Henry was aghast that Sir Thomas More actually became genuinely religious. Sir Thomas More had been an honest lawyer before being appointed Head of the Catholic Church in Britain. So, the play is about Sir Thomas's dilemma concerning religious faith and friendship, about Sir Thomas using a legalistic argument in order to make no formal comment either for or against the marriage, though he was against it. Perhaps silence on the matter would be the best way out of the dilemma. At Sir Thomas's trial there is this exchange between Prosecutor Cromwell and defendant Sir Thomas More.
Cromwell: Now, Sir Thomas, you stand on your silence.
Sir Thomas More: I do.
Cromwell: But, gentlemen of the jury, there are many kinds of silence. Consider first the silence of a man who is dead. Let us suppose we go into the room where he is laid out, and we listen: what do we hear? Silence. What does it betoken, this silence? Nothing; this is silence pure and simple. But let us take another case. Suppose I were to take a dagger from my sleeve and make to kill the prisoner with it; and my lordships there, instead of crying out for me to stop, maintained their silence. That would betoken! It would betoken a willingness that I should do it, and under the law, they will be guilty with me. So silence can, according to the circumstances, speak! Let us consider now the circumstances of the prisoner's silence. The oath was put to loyal subjects up and down the country, and they all declared His Grace's title to be just and good. But when it came to the prisoner, he refused! He calls this silence. Yet is there a man in this court - is there a man in this country! - who does not know Sir Thomas More's opinion of this title?
Crowd in court gallery: No!
Cromwell: Yet how can this be? Because this silence betokened, nay, this silence was, not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!
Sir Thomas More: Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is "Qui tacet consentire": the maxim of the law is "Silence gives consent". If therefore you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.
Cromwell: Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?
Sir Thomas More: The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.
So what does Rishi Sunak's silence betoken? I believe that it is a silence that speaks volumes.
