Are you saying Happy Christmas ?

I wonder if I might crave your momentary indulgence in order to discharge a — by no means disagreeable — obligation which has over the years become, more or less established practice within government circles as we approach the terminal period of the year, calendar of course not financial; in fact, not to put too fine a point on it, week 51; and submit to you, with all appropriate deference, for your consideration at a... convenient juncture, a sincere and sanguine expectation, indeed, confidence; indeed one might go so far as to say hope, that the aforementioned period may be, at the end of the day, when all relevant facts have been taken into consideration, susceptible of being deemed to be such as to merit a final verdict of having being, by no means, unsatisfactory in its overall outcome and in the final analysis, to give grounds for being judged, on mature reflection, to have been conducive to generating a degree of gratification which will be seen in retrospect, to have been significantly higher than the general average…

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