Читаем Говори и пиши как The Eсonomist полностью

The world's countries no longer resemble "a flotilla of more than 100 separate boats"; rather, "they all live in 193 separate cabins on the same boat".

Sir Malcolm Jack, a former clerk of the Commons, was asked why the ca­tering services of the House of Lords, the upper house, and the House of Commons could not have been merged to save money. He replied: "The lords feared that the quality of champagne would not be as good if they chose a joint service." According to The Guardian newspaper, the upper house has spent £ 265,770 on 17,000 bottles of the stuff since the Con­servative-Liberal Democrat coalition government took office in 2010 — enough for five bottles of bubbly per peer per year.

Using "farmer" to mean "stupid" is unwise in Iowa, where the word is synonymous with "voter".

Mr Clegg is Westminster roadkill; his net personal approval rating is mi­nus 52.

One of Pol Pot's favourite sayings was, tuk min chamnen, dak chenh ka, min kat — "to keep you is no gain, to kill you no loss".

Arguably, the Founding Fathers favored a system in which one foot stayed permanently on the accelerator and the other on the brake. Hasn't America got what they wanted?

We're all Americuns, greatest race in the world!

Letting in dynamic immigrants, revamping the tax code and reforming entitlements would make the Great Society safe for another generation. Not enough to get Mr Obama's face carved on Mount Rushmore, but not bad.

Jurgen Habermas, the German philosopher who thought up the concept of the "public sphere", has always been in two minds about the internet. Digital communication, he wrote a few years ago, has unequivocal democratic merits only in authoritarian countries, where it undermines the government's information monopoly. Yet in liberal regimes, online media, with their mil­lions of forums for debate on a vast range of topics, could lead to a "fragmentation of the public" and a "liquefaction of politics", which would be harmful to democracy.

Being Republican, and thus not having a heart, saved his life when he got shot in the chest once.

One of the most popular sports in Washington is the partisan flip.

If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour.

North Korea is the world's most rational despotic regime: a high­ly successful Communist absolute monarchy.

Bushism is Reaganism minus the passion for freedom.

For all its faults socialism is manifestly superior to capitalism in one area: the making of myths.

Every nation knows what is right and how everyone else is wrong.

Romania, a country where governments have the longevity of mayflies.

The queen understands that she is a symbol, and that symbols are "bet­ter off mostly keeping quiet".

Three highly dysfunctional institutions: the state of California, the European Union and the G20.

Leticia Van de Putte, a Texas state senator from San Antonio with rela­tives on both sides of the border, points out that "our family was there when it was Spain, when it was France, when it was Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States, the Confederacy. Our family's always been in the same place; it was the damn government that kept changing."

Abraham Lincoln observed that "nearly all men can stand adver­sity but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

The Newark mayor has long been a man of action. He once chased down a robbery suspect. He shovelled snow during a 2010 blizzard. In April he suffered burns when rescuing a neighbour from her burning house. Earlier this month he directed traffic away from an accident he came across.

For many years Northern Ireland was a large net importer of ad­vice on how to end its troubles.

Neanderthal dictatorship.

The prime minister should stop being the custodian of vaginas.

It could almost be a question in a political-science exam. Three groups, A, B and C each lack the necessary parliamentary majority; A will not form a coalition with B; C will not support either. How do you form a government.

Short of taking bribes or fornicating in a public park, there is no surer way to detonate a career in British politics than to accept a job as home secretary.

A cartoon of a fully clothed, bespectacled Mr Zuma, virtually unrecog­nisable save for the characteristic bump at the back of his shaven head, in a heroic Leninesque pose, but with his genitals hanging out of his trousers.

Joe Biden, the American vice-president, stood beside Mr Hol- lande in Paris and applauded his "decisiveness" and "the incred­ible competence and capability" of France's military forces. For a politician whom members of his own party compared vari­ously to a marshmallow, a woodland strawberry and a caramel pudding, this was bliss indeed.

In a short story called "Franchise", Isaac Asimov dreamed up a computer that saved Americans from going to the polls. The machine was fed data, and interviewed one representative voter, before announcing a result that perfectly reflected what would have happened had the election been held.

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