Very now, very knowledge economy

God how I laughed on the underground this morning!

Last week, I sat in a two-and-a-half-hour meeting full of intense conversation only for the chair at the close to conclude by saying: "Thank you everyone for a most interesting dialogue. We should go away now and think some more because this has all been rather fuzzy."

Then I think of all of the angst-ridden dialogue currently going on in the U.K. on the theme of 'community cohesion', only for two immigrant doctors to attempt a Baghdad manoeuvre at Glasgow Airport.

Then I see the pile of conference name-badges piling up on my desk from over-sized encounter groups, high on animated slide transitions, mezzanine manners and chicken satay on a stick.

Then on the Tube I read Hari Kunzru's great article on Gordon Brown in the New Statesman magazine.

In the piece, Kunzru joins the premier-in-waiting at a conference of global Muslim leaders in London. Brown arrives late and makes a speech. According to Kunzru:

He claims that "there's no more important dialogue than the dialogue we've had today" and throws in a quick statistic. Apparently this year there will be "250 interfaith or multifaith dialogues, covering the whole country". This will, apparently, be "50 up on last year". I have no idea what he means, but it sounds very now, very knowledge economy. Production of dialogue is exceeding the levels set in the five-year plan.

 Is there a moment when we can come in from the fields, rest our weary feet and minds and say that we have truly achieved our quota of dialogue for the year?