Loose cannons

First things first

"Instead of the holistic approach, we've zoomed in on the bottom line, and trade is the only driving consideration." — An anonymous official, quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, on the Australian government's attitude to international negotiations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

How democracy works

"If a bureaucracy and a lobby group are as one mind, it's almost impossible for governments to receive alternative advice." — Bob Gordon, head of a business consultancy, on the "revolving door" by which top bureaucrats move between the public service and business.

That figures

"The Government, facing a warning that unemployment would increase this year, was urged yesterday to make it tougher for the jobless to get the dole." — Sydney Morning Herald, July 9.

Profits by Stealth

"Overstated, misleading, inconsistent with the best available data or unverifiable." — A US General Accounting Office report on manufacturers' and military claims about "smart" weapons used in the 1991 Gulf War. Such weapons represented 8% of bomb tonnage used but 84% of the cost. The GAO said that less than 40% of bombs dropped by Stealth bombers — which cost US$1 billion each — hit their targets.

Technical curtsey

"The BBC reported that Diana will 'either relinquish or be stripped of the HRH title' — a move that means she will take a lower place in the hierarchy — and be expected to curtsy to her former in-laws, even, technically, to her two sons." — Sydney Morning Herald report on the most boring divorce of the decade.

From GLW issue 238