Someone has shared with me a vivid communication from the Driving Standards Agency (Safe Driving for Life). It was sent by Rosemary Thew, Chief Executive. A person grammatically challenged as she attempts to give instructions on how to access a DSA driving theory test centre hosted by Pearson Professional Centres: On […]
Derek Tonkin is a distinguished former Ambassador (of an older generation than me) who follows closely the situation in Burma. He was brought up in a Foreign Office which prided itself on impeccable standards and good manners. Hence his sensible and courteous letter to David Miliband in March about Burma, […]
Still, the actual training in Den Haag on Writing with Impact went well, with lots of praise from the participants for my dynamic, eye-opening presentation on good diplomatic writing technique: Witty, clear, practical Lively, entertaining, convincing Funny, memorable, practical Great. I particularly liked the humorous presenting. A lot of information, […]
Let’s start with a brilliant resource for all Brit bloggers: localmouth, a way to find local blogs wherever you are in the UK. Hover somewhere near Oxford and you might find mine. A wonderful example of the way intelligent networked pluralism helps mobilise human creativity without busybody official statist help. […]
This is a well turned article in the Guardian about Poland’s sorrow, marred only by dismal errors in two Polish names. The Kaczynski family home is in Zoliborz, not Zoliborcz. The rz on the end of Zoliborz is not the ‘ch’ sound on the end of the non-existent Zoliborcz. It’s the difference […]
Bored by the UK election campaign already? Missing meaning in your life? Or just nothing much to do tomorrow? Pop over to Toronto for a gathering on the subject of Srebrenica: Myth, Manipulation, Historic Truth at St Sava church hall, 203 River Street. 3pm. There you can expect to hear […]
Attention, militant and extreme Islamists! Especially in Bosnia. An attempt has been made back in the 1990s to put round a forged letter from British Prime Minister John Major to FCO Minister Douglas Hogg, supposedly ‘revealing’ wicked British anti-Islamic policies. Well, here it is. I want you all to pay […]
Remember the world scoop/poop of Sarajevo newspaper Dnevi Avaz, featuring what was said to be fascimile copy of a letter from Prime Minister John Major to FCO Minister of State Douglas Hogg, back in May 1993? In the so-called letter Prime Minister Major says a number of nasty things about […]
You’re a great leader. You make speeches. In our Tower of Babel world, is it better to keep hammering away on the same themes (and often using the same words and phrases) to get your message across? Maybe. But don’t overdo the clichés. Or people will start listening to you […]
I was down at Guidhall in the City yesterday, to watch the special ceremony of Poland’s excellent Ambassador Barbara Tuge-Erecinksa being accepted as a Freeman of the City. Barbara was deeply involved in the Gdansk Shipyard protests and the heroic rise of the Solidarity movement: Active in the underground during the martial […]
