We'll get the group together, have them introduce themselves and talk a little bit about why they want to serve on the committee and why the growth policy is important to them.

There will be ample opportunity for public involvement. But if it dominates every work session, not much work is going to get done. That may not even become a problem, but we need to have a game plan in case it does.

It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.

Mikheil Saakashvili can claim that 80 per cent of Georgians wanted to join NATO; on the other hand, a similar percentage of Russians would almost certainly support Putin's quest for a strong Russia. We would mistake this mood at our peril.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, Reagan and Thatcher displayed Churchillian magnanimity towards Gorbachev's broken nation. Relations were never better. There was no triumphalism.

We were unlucky that it didn't end in a tie. This was a game where a tie should have been the result.