In Whitehall, more than ever, permanent secretaries are strictly departmental, rarely venturing into civil service-wide affairs.
That is a very British proposal: it would not decisively answer the West Lothian question, but it would make it a little less pressing (albeit at the expense of giving the other three nations even less say over UK-wide affairs).
To accommodate their vehicle of choice, the driveways, sorry, the taxiways here are wide affairs of 50- to 60 feet of paved access to the houses, where the flying (identified) objects fit neatly in their oversized garages -- sometimes several in a row.
French officials said today that the meeting should be opened to others, and Britain has signaled that it would attend if it was a European Union-wide affair.
We need to be constantly aware that with the rise of trends such as open source, successful invention is no longer the sole preserve of the lone boffin or the corporate R&D department, but is a population-wide affair.
It was in many ways an industry-wide affair.
During this period he also became involved in wider European affairs, with broader international connections, with elder statesmen such as the French economist Jean Monnet and, thanks to a year at Harvard, with Henry Kissinger, who became a lifelong friend.
Vice broadened its focus from youth-oriented arts and culture into wider current affairs and foreign news coverage with the launch of Vice News five months ago, including video reports from conflict areas such as Ukraine and in the Middle East.
In Anbar province, the Sunni tribes which rose up against al-Qaida and other insurgents -- and led to a turning point of the war -- are now seeking to transform their fame into council seats and significantly increase their role in wider Iraqi affairs.
Still, the wider Berlusconi affair and the fact that so flawed a man has managed to rise to such prominence in both Italy and Europe does raise bigger issues.
