In Saudi Arabia, whether it was the UK's proposed prison training contract – cancelled only after overwhelming pressure – or the timid Foreign Office response to the mass executions carried out in the kingdom in January, the Tory government treats Riyadh's human rights record as an inconvenient embarrassment, rather than a cause of serious concern.
Audiard's new film, Read My Lips, tells the story of Carla, a timid, secretly deaf office worker (Emmanuelle Devos) who helps a trainee with a criminal record (Vincent Cassel) hold down a job in the strange world of fax machines and photocopiers.
Blairism meaning, in a domestic context, a belief in the power of market-based reforms to raise standards in the public services is a philosophy that evolved in office, after more timid approaches failed.
What binds these skits in a format that leads from one to the next with no connective tissue is the occasional presence of Dennis Quaid as a crazy, down-on-his-luck filmmaker who has wangled his way into the office of a timid midlevel studio executive (Greg Kinnear) to sell the project.
Certainly, several of the pictures that I saw in UBS's London offices felt decorative, timid and even downright mediocre.
And some say the Senate, where the slow pace and partisan maneuvering over confirmations has kept high-level offices vacant for extended stretches, is being too timid and should consider more far-reaching changes for all presidential appointees.
Unlike in the case of Mrs Thatcher or Mr Blair, the Congress party, itself timid and status quoist, was not likely to ask Manmohan Singh to leave office.
Though it might seem paradoxical, Mr Graham's really distinctive contribution could involve teaching more timid rivals how to advance sensible views on immigration, without being driven from office by the far right.Mr Graham's survival in South Carolina offers several lessons.
He need only look at the public dissatisfaction with Manmohan Singh, the timid current prime minister, who has dared to give India so little leadership in his years in office.
The agreement was supposed to divide government ministries equally between the President and Prime Minister's offices, but it didn't; some say this is because Kibaki stonewalled, others that Odinga was too timid to face up to his rival.
