Hazelnuts of Wisdom

Hi, yes it’s been a while [unfortunately a tooth problem has knocked me for six].

…and now I’m back.

Yes, it’s an interesting time through the UK elections and Eurozone challenges.  Over the next few weeks I aim to pick out some big and small points from these situations.

The first is a tiny point that brought a smile to my face.

It’s a quote from the UK’s currently unelected Prime Minister Grodon Brown, just prior to the election last Thursday:

I’m going to fight for the future until the very last second.”

Okay, it was reported as a soundbite.  Why did I smile?

It’s about specificity.

To say that he’ll “fight for the future until the very last second” suggests that Gordon knew something about the “future” to know when it would end. This means he’s defined the “future” in a way that has an end.

The future doesn’t usually have a “last second” so the speaker needs to make clear the subkect of their statement where the future does have an end.  To help you the context was the future of Britain.  This can have an end which could be, amongst other things:

• The break of Britain into its constituent countries.
• The destruction of Britain, Europe, some chunk of the earth that includes Britain or the destruction of the planet.
• The end of human civilisation so that the concept of ‘Britain’ is lost.

There is another option here.  Gordon could have meant that he would fight to the very last second…of some project or timeframe.  In truth this is more likely and could have been deleted either by Gordon or the press who reported his soundbite.  The probability is that he meant or said:

fight until the very last second…of this election.

It is often important to be precise in your language so that people are clear on what you mean.

This is particularly true when you have authority and responsibility.  Otherwise, in Gordon’s case you might ask what does he know about the future that he’s not letting on?  Or you might just smile as I did, knwoing that the ‘future’, in its entirety, never has a last second, even if Gordon’s no longer PM there’s still a future, there’s still a future even if this planet no longer exists.

All the best,

Keep smiling to the end, or into the future, whichever appeals more!

David

PS: Some of you might be asking about the ‘unelected’ bit in the title.  Well, regardless of the fact that post election Gordon’s still in No.10 Downing Street and continuing as PM, he’s still unelected, right until the very last second, even if the LibDems do an about face and team up with Labour – it’s unlikely Gordon will ever have be an elected PM [and that's just me looking into the future].

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