Into the in-tray pop some documents called Managing Talent and Development Options for Leaders in the BBC.
In return, Tony Blair has extracted a promise from Guy Verhofstadt, his Belgian counterpart, that when the convention reports in 2003 or 2004 it will not come up with a take-it-or-leave-it blueprint, but will instead offer a series of options for national leaders to consider.The Belgians have agreed to this idea, partly because they think it may ultimately play into the integrationists' hands.
Because if the recent flap over Katy Perry's declaration for feminism or the #banbossy campaign are any indication, we still seem to have only two options for female leaders, "bitch" or "bimbo".
But sitting on his hands and avoiding the subject isn't an option for a leader.
Lad! Lad! Laaaaaad!" Before we leave the library, the whole group does a vote on the preferred option for Tory leader and by extension next Prime Minister.
But neither widespread lay-offs in an already volatile countryside nor a huge increase in central-government spending are palatable options for China's leaders.Nor are they rushing to address the needs of those millions of country-dwellers who have moved in recent years to work in urban areas.
This makes a dollar devaluation inevitable, not least because it becomes a seemingly attractive option for the leaders of a heavily indebted America.
The Western suit became an option for Party leaders only as China's "reform and opening" took off, in the nineteen-eighties, with Hu Yaobang, the General Secretary at the time, and his pinstripe-clad Premier, Zhao Ziyang, in the vanguard.
Ignoring poor responses to domestic violence is no longer an option for local leaders, as the costs associated with failing to protect women mount, and pressure grows for better responses.
Ignoring hardware is not an option for established leaders and new insurgents.
