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View from the Foot of the Tower: Horse-trading and threshold concessions
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Rather like the last piece there’s something of a similarity between politics and negotiations in family law – last time it was that promises in manifestos and promises in care plans can have less solidity than one might suppose. This time it is about the negotiations on threshold criteria something to which the term ‘horse-trading’ gets used almost as much as in political discussions about what might happen after an election that doesn’t deliver a majority.
I was somewhat curious as to why horse-trading had such pejorative connotations (you never hear anyone say ‘I am looking forward to beginning the horse-trading on this issue’ or ‘It is right that the two of us should engage in horse-trading for the benefit of the country’). Apparently it is due to the difficulties when buying a horse to know exactly what the quality of said horse will be and thus those involved in the practice have a reputation of dishonesty and sharp practice.
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