A quiet joke at your expense
Is the British penchant for irony a cause or cure of national decline?
WHILE working as The Economist's man in South-East Asia, your correspondent noticed something peculiar about British diplomats. Their briefings about the countries in which they were based had a common characteristic. They would start with a more or less lucid account of the political and economic situation, followed by a few anecdotes. And then—as often as not—our man, in Manila or Bangkok or wherever, would say of the locals: “You see they have no sense of irony.”
This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “A quiet joke at your expense”
Christmas Specials December 18th 1999
From the December 18th 1999 edition
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