How does he exude such elegant deviousness?
Asset recovery is a slog, studded with obstacles that range from the deviousness of those hiding the money to the clunkiness of the international legal framework for identifying, freezing and repatriating looted wealth.
But perhaps no better could be expected from an industry that has proved singularly dim in its deviousness.
In later political life he kept a cherished black Spitfire, which flew among the modern jet fighters at his state funeral.His daring and deviousness both showed themselves early.
The West, she argues, generally underestimates the deviousness and destructiveness of Islamist movements, whether they use bullets, ballot boxes or both.
Cheating and deviousness apart, is this what we want?
If you leave out the by-phrase then the agent doesn't get specified, but that's often exactly the right way to phrase things, and doesn't imply any deviousness or evasiveness... Do government ministers use more passives in statements after policies fail?
Mr Obama did not demur.This month the Israeli prime minister offered fresh glimpses of his deviousness.
The latest deviousness came in July, when an accounting gimmick was used to cover a $10.8 billion shortfall and keep the fund going until May.The gap will only grow in coming years, reaching $120 billion by 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
But, according to Adrian Fort, Wavell's biographer, politicians appreciate "a certain deviousness in approaching problems and like to be flattered".
That would seem to ascribe to the coalition an unrealistic level of strategic wizardry and general deviousness, beyond even that possessed by the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne.
