This post is dedicated to Bernard Woolley, the lovable pedant who is the Private Secretary to the Principal Secretary to Jim Hacker, the minister for Administrative Affairs in Yes Minister<\/i>
He is the one responsible for such immortal lines as<\/p>\n
Jim Hacker: “Now about nailing that leak…”
Bernard Woolley: “I’m sorry to be pedantic, but if you nail a leak you make another.”
<\/i>
If you haven’t read<\/b> Yes Minister, as opposed to watching <\/b> it on TV, you haven’t lived <\/p>\n
I wonder what he’d say about these poor abused metaphors:<\/p>\n
There can be many a slip between the cup and the lip<\/b> before the last word is said<\/b> on the privatisation of public sector oil refining and retailing companies, the Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and the Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) corporations.<\/font><\/cite>(Sand in oil divestment – Indian Express<\/a>) There’s more:
Try not to have the last word in an argument while sipping a cup of coffee…<\/p>\n
Sitting on an empire of patronage<\/b>, few ministers want to hack the branch they are perched on<\/b>.<\/font><\/cite>
Where are<\/i> they sitting on?<\/p>\n