economic

economic, economical

1. These are both adjectives answering to the word economy: economic in the meanings ‘relating to economics’ and ‘frugal, characterized by good economy’, and economical in the meaning ‘sparing in the use of resources’. An economic cost is one that is practical and makes good business sense, whereas an economical cost is one that is modest and not excessive.

2. The phrase economical with the truth, meaning ‘saying just as much as is needed or relevant’, is a political cliché of our times, recalling earlier notions of Burke and others that ‘in the exercise of all virtues, there is an economy of truth’. In its present form it alludes to events of 1986, when the British Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong, giving evidence during the ‘Spycatcher’ trial (in which the British government sought to prevent the publication of a book of that name by a former MI5 employee), referred to a former statement in the following way: It contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth. Phrases such as this are not easily forgotten, and allusive references abound, e.g.:

• Contrast Lord Butler's forensic exposure of intelligence failures this week with the smoothly arrogant evidence in defence of the Iraq dossier presented to the Hutton report last year, and you have a picture, if not of deception, then of men who were being severely economical with the truth —Scotland on Sunday, 2004.