Hi Folks,
I'm happy to note that Sir Ivor Roberts, Britain's former
Ambassador to Rome, has a taste for my favourite parlour game[1].
On Radio 4 "PM" this evening (about 17:40):
Presenter:
"It's not often that a light is shone on behind-the-scenes
diplomatic activity at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
For many years, it's been a tradition that outgoing British
ambassadors write a farewell telegram. It's not normally
something that bcecomes public but, when Sir Ivor Roberts
stepped down as ambassador to Rome, his trenchant remarks
became public. Around the same time, the Foreign Office
stopped the practice of farewell telegrams.
What did Sir Ivor say? Well he suggested, among other things,
that British diplomacy is being subordinated to a [quote]
"Bullshit Bingo management culture". I asked Sir Ivor what
that meant.
Sir Ivor:
"Well, that was just a lightly dismissive term for the
plethora of management-speak language which has infested
the Foreign Office for the last few years, a kind of
left-over from Wall Street after they'd moved on to
something else, these endless exercises in skills, audits,
capability reviews, this whole culture of the review."
[...]
Can be listened to online until tomorrow (Saturday) at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/pm
So happy to see an undiplomaticcomment on the debased language
which bogs down all our attempts at clarity and specificity
in information, statistical or not!
best wishes to all,
Ted.
[1] http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 27-Apr-07 Time: 23:04:51
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