‘It’s unprecedented!’ So said many people in Cairo during the dramatic recent uprising, that began in protest against ‘austerity’ measures and turned into a full-blown revolution. They were proud of being able to say so.
The contrast could hardly have been more stark than with a spin doctor I recently heard advise a British politician never to say ‘unprecedented’ at all. It sounds like an excuse, he said, and during these difficult times no-one is in a forgiving mood. Far better to say ‘inherited’, which means that someone else is to blame. My mind promptly turned to wondering quite what it is that I have inherited from my own lengthening life which is no-one else’s fault but my own.
