Very sad news this morning. Jozef Oleksy, one of Poland’s smartest politicians, has died. Oleksy (see a Wikipedia summary here) was one of those smart former communists (he was for a while a secret informer for Poland’s communist military intelligence) who smoothly made the transition to European social democracy after […]
Grappling with Bow Tie Panic Terror © as New Year’s Eve approaches? These are two good videos explaining how to avoid disaster. One is folksy and youthful (and British): Whereas this one is more professional/American but has handy animal tips (Parrot, Fish and Elephant):
Here is my new piece for PunditWire on Vladimir Putin’s State of the Nation speech. I previously added some other glosses on it here, with special focus on its sprawling mustiness: Otherwise the speech showed that a Russian president is no different from his Western counterparts when it comes to […]
Attentive readers will recall my Near Death Experience in an NHS hospital back in 2011, and the thoughts it prompted on how a large UK hospital works: In one banal way of looking at it, the NHS is a huge quasi-shop. It has ‘customers’ who need ‘products’, so the key […]
On the subject of the media, HM Government made a serious effort to crank up positive publicity for the visit to London of Poland’s President Kwasniewski on a State Visit after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. The visit featured a fun photo-shoot swing by the London football ground where […]
Back from a lively session of specialist media training, featuring a no-holds-barred account of my own encounters with the media down the decades. Highlights included: my disastrous exchange with Peter Fabricius in South Africa on the day Mrs Thatcher resigned my first live broadcast on a global news network – […]
I haven’t ever published here before the full text of my legendary Chinese Alarm-Clock email about the then EU Budget negotiations that was leaked in late 2005 by someone senior (in the Treasury?) to the Sunday Times and caused a vast furore in Poland. It was a spoof speaking note […]
The G20 Summit in Australia ends. The assembled leaders start the long flights home. The results are in the communique, a classic example of a dull, badly written, important text: We have agreed on a set of voluntary leading practices to promote and prioritise quality investment, particularly in infrastructure. To […]
It turns out that there are all sorts of unexpected things that create panic or unease in people. Many of them have fancy scientific names: Fear of buttons Koumpounophobia Fear of doorknobs […]
In case you’re all wondering, my eBook Speechwriting for Leaders is coming along very nicely. A bold and amusing cover is being designed (every e-Book needs a bold and amusing eCover) and the substance is entering the layout and final edit phase. The problem for any great artist with any work […]
