Going forward for pleasure and profit

Christmas, a time for vengeance; and for awards. So, there is no better way to celebrate the season than to inaugurate the Fundy Post Going Forward Award. The purpose of this award will be celebrate the use of the popular corporate phrase going forward by people who have stuffed things seriously up.

The first nomination for this prestigious award is Dr Stephen Clarke, Chief Executive of the RSA. Dr Clarke used the phrase going forward while attempting to defend the RSA decision to have poppies made by an Australian supplier from parts manufactured in China. For many years, RSA poppies have been made by Kilmarnock Enterprises, a company which provides "employment and personal development for people with varying levels of abilities." Dr Clarke says this decision will save the RSA One Hundred Thousand Dollars.

So, let us get this right: the RSA has a longstanding relationship with a company based in a New Zealand city which recently suffered a really bad earthquake, a company which exists to provide employment for disabled people. Dr Clarke decides that it would be better to offer the work to an Australian company, one which gets its poppy parts from a country which - apart from its record of torture, imprisonment and execution - was the effective enemy of New Zealand in the Korean War.

Dr Clarke thinks he has done a good thing, that he will have more money to give to the veterans. Given that the number of veterans is diminishing - we don't do wars the way we used to do them - and that an awful lot of people buy poppies, one would have thought that the RSA would be awash with money. One might also have thought that they would have considered the good will they have built. One might have thought that they would have considered the sum of $100,000 to be not worth gambling.

But no, the RSA is going forward . It might well be doing so on its own.

Dr Clarke is not the only dick in a suit to use the going forward phrase while defending his disasterous actions. If you, gentle reader, can recall a particular going forward moment from this year's media, do let me know. Your nominated canidate will be subjected to the usual ridicule in the pages of this blog; and you may well win a prize.

The Loud Family: