For more than a decade, Russia has been, more or less, a democracy and a market economy, and on civilised terms with its neighbours.
The rest of the world will be watching closely to see if Britain continues to pass the test of a democracy that can raise the prospect of a divorce in civilised terms, instead of through a coup or down the barrel of a gun.
"It's a bit of a yah boo sucks to the big guys like Amazon, encouraging people to be a little more civilised, in terms of not getting beaten up [over bargains]." Along with the offer of prosecco at Corfield-Walters's shop, customers will have the chance to take part in a competition to see who can walk the furthest down the high street with a book on their head to ensure correct posture.
A democratic deficit is lamentable but in the long term, civilised societies have more to fear from a democratic surplus, otherwise known as mob rule.
For anybody who follows such announcements regularly, the official and unofficial government media are always peppered with words such as "civilised", "progressive" and "development" – terms for something that is supposedly in a constant state of progress, or transition.
What we have here is a load of actual grown adult men men with hair under their armpits, bank accounts, and driving licenses genuinely spatting on terms less civilised than you'd expect on an after-school MSN messenger session between a group of horny year 9s.
Above all, he is "civilised" (one of his favourite terms of approbation).
In the 'merit-based' world of North Korea politics has been succeeded by his son (it's just like the Republican Party or broadcast punditry over there)."I think it's useful for us to occasionally step out of our relatively civilised ghetto and recall the terms in which political warfare is actually being conducted in America's digital trenches.
Under the shelter of strong government, humankind can enjoy "commodious living" - Hobbes' term for a civilised mode of life in which we can live and work together without fear.
In 1945, Waugh said that Pablo Picasso's artistic standing was the result of a "mesmeric trick"; that his paintings "could not be intelligently discussed in the terms used of the civilised masters".
Mr Shein chose to denounce the assault in religious terms: "It was not a civilised act, it is not Islam," he said.The overwhelmingly Muslim archipelago, which forms part of a union with Tanzania, has seen an increasingly uncomfortable relationship between conservative Islam and the Western holidaymakers that frequent its beaches.
