Anyone that’s spent any time at all with anyone from the SI team will have fairly rapidly grown sick of hearing us use the J.P.Morgan aphorism, ‘a man makes a decision for two reasons, the good reason and the real reason’. The idea is that it acts as a reminder to always be thinking about both the tangible and intangible factors that lay behind a decision. Or a piece of communication.

A couple of weeks ago we had a timely reminder that there is often a third reason why people say the things they do. The furore in the UK when Government Minister, Mark Simmonds announced that he was resigning because, to para-phrase, he wasn’t able to live on the salary the government role attracted. When the public learned that this income, including housing allowance, amounted to £120,000 a year, to say there was a lack of sympathy would be one of the understatements of the year.

Now, working on the assumption the Right Honourable Mr Simmonds is a smart guy, one is still left wondering what his real reasons behind his resignation might have been. Some internal politicking with the rest of the Conswervative Party, for example, or a desire to protest at an issue he felt strongly about. Something with a ‘pay peanuts, get monkeys’ theme perhaps? He might have a point. But, regarding his ‘good’ reason, using poor salary wasn’t perhaps the best choice in the world.

Given the public outcry that followed his announcement, it feels to me like there was a clear third reason why Mr Simmonds explained the resignation in the way that he did. Maybe people say things for three reasons. The good one, the real one, and the half-baked, ‘didin’t think this one through properly’ reason.

What’s for sure is he certainly didn’t try and see the way his words might be interpreted by his constituency members or the public at large. Or, if he did, there was a striking flaw in his logic somewhere.

To most people in the UK, £120,000 a year represents an awful lot of money. If Mr Simmonds had had them in mind, and had spent no more than another couple of minutes thinking about things, he might well have chosen to give a different ‘good’ reason for his resignation. Had he said, for example, that he was resigning from the Government because his role was forcing him to spend too much time at work and not enough time with his family, he might well have garnered a whole lot more sympathy. Well done, a lot of parents might well have said, someone who’s prepared to give up his career for the sake of his work/life balance and to spend more quality time with his family.

But no, Mr Simmonds succumbed to third-reason logic. Perhaps he was trying to remind us all that foot-in-mouth disease is an ever-present danger. That there is always the possibility that after we’ve thought through our good and real reasons, there’s still one more reason to go.