Sorry, I was distracted from packing to spot this strange headline on the BBC web-page: US ‘revokes Venezuela envoy visa’ Why have they put most of that in inverted commas, as if it’s not true or somehow qualified or in doubt? The BBC’s own article on the subject reports a State […]
Is hosted by Jackart. Who somewhat ungrammatically draws attention to a lefty blogger’s poor spelling and grammar in her rejection of police handling of the student demonstrations: HarpyMarx gives her perspective of the protests, and her spelling & grammar deteriorates as her anger rises… Oops. I never know quite what to make of […]
A good general rule is that any organisation starting to talk about ‘excellence’ has a serious mediocrity problem. Excellent people and organisations don’t need to worry about excellence. They just get on with delivering it. Alas the FCO has launched a new scheme intended to help its staff claw their way […]
Developing the theme of correct punctuation, reader jdmyeepa steers us to this superb essay about the Philosophy of Punctuation by Paul Robinson, who used to keep goal for Tottenham (and alas England) but then became a prominent American intellectual. Or maybe it’s two separate P Robinsons. Whatever. Anyway, this deft […]
A super, sharp little analysis by Frank Furedi of the way the state appropriates responsibilities and then redistributes them, wrecking almost every value we ought to hold dear in the process. Look at this devastating passage:: … the public has become a project, a project of inclusion. New Labour loved having […]
My talk at TEDxKrakow contained one throw-away observation which raised warm applause from the massed Polish audience. I said that I had studied various languages. Polish is the only one which teaches you the verb ‘to complain’ – narzekać – as one of the VERY FIRST VERBS YOU LEARN. This subsequently led to […]
Over at DIPLOMAT magazine is my latest piece on the highs and lows of diplomatic public speaking. See this excellent example when Queen Elizabeth I chastised the new Polish Ambassador – in fluent Latin: The first speech any Ambassador makes in her/his own right is the formal address to the […]
Exhibit A: Trust: the behavioural challenge PwC Point of View paper, Oct 2010 Exhibit B: The Rational Optimist Let’s start with Exhibit A, a recent paper put out by PwC which looks at the role of Trust in corporate culture. Underpinning the analysis is the “ethicability” methodology advanced by Prof Roger Steare, a fellow Business and […]
More confused or at least confusing analysis of the EU Budget in the Daily Telegraph: The Prime Minister last week promised to fight plans to increase the European Commission’s budget by 5.9 per cent and said its 2011 budget should be frozen or cut. Last night, however, British sources conceded […]
