CATEGORY - Doublespeak

Indy - Brown: I am staying away from Olympics opening ceremony – but it's not a boycott -
ie: 'ceasing or refusing to deal with something as a protest, and to force it to become more acceptable'.

Reuters - U.N. chief will miss Beijing Olympic ceremony - seems GB is not the only world, er, 'leader' who didn't know about the Olympics this year and didn't RSVP properly to the party ('scuse pun) invite properly with first checking his diary.

BBC - Curiouser and curiouser

Ah well, he's not alone I guess. Looks like other World Leade...er, um, ers, such as the Head of the UN didn't check their MySpace calendar well enough either to avoid a schedule clash to give a proper RSVP to the party ('scuse pun) invite.

So it seems were all confused, still. I certainly am. The British government seems to be. And our media. Even the BBC...

To infinity... and beyond!

But many posters are right, this pales into insignificance compared to such vital high-profile prime ministerial outings on pressing issues such as football manager selection, plastic bags, George Clooney and US charity phone ins.

Guardian - The accidental hero - It's getting rather fun, in a tragic comedic way, swapping between various partisan media (Nick Robinson and Mihir Bose of the BBC and their blog threads are currently tying themselves into Gordian Knots!) to see just what was and wasn't said by whom, and when... as none seem to able to agree! But this is the leaders of countries and national reporting organs, remember!

Guardian - Opening comments - Gordon Brown and the Beijing Olympics

Indy - When is a boycott not a boycott?

The Times - Junior culture minister Gerry Sutcliffe and his adroit U-turn over alcohol taxes - which are either far too high or about right, depending on when you catch him - and his deft explanation for the apparent difference: “My comments do not accurately reflect my views.”

Indy - NEW - Defence Secretary Des Browne, pressed by Jon Humphrys on troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan because of inadequate equipment: "Well all of those cases have been examined and in each case which has been examined where the lessons have been learned we have learned those lessons."

I can see this category becoming a bit of a feature.