So let me now offer, for your digestion, Winston Churchill’s law for survival in public office: “It is”, he declared, “…the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year; and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it did not happen.” Let me conclude, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, with some wise words from a former chief executive of Shell Oil, which serve as a golden rule in his industry.
Although couched in the language of the oilman drilling for oil, it is sound advice, readily applicable to public speaking, as you will appreciate: “If you are not striking, stop boring!”  BIS Review 161/2010  7