Mannerisms

Some years back, when Scottish Heritage was still called the Scottish Development Agency, a conference was held by the agency to announce the opening of a Mitsubishi VCR factory in Scotland.

As is usual at these regional inward investment conferences, the PR guy was extremely keen to get in a plug for the virtues of the local workforce as being one of the key reasons for the decision to locate in that area.

(When everyone knew it was the size of the grants that counted).

'Would you like to tell us all of your experience with your workforce?' asked the PR.

The Mitsubishi managing director was saying nothing.

Not even a couple of further prompts from the PR brought any response.

It was very clear to the audience that the Mitsubishi guy wasn't going to play ball on this one.

But clearly the PR hadn't come up against the phenomenon of Japanese integrity. The PR clearly thought anyone would say something polite in the circumstances so long as they were pushed.

He pushed.

'You can give these ladies and gentlemen your honest opinion of what you think about your Scottish workforce", he said, unwisely.

The Mitsubishi md's response brought the house down

"They go toilet; not ask permission."

After that, with members of the audience holding onto their chairs for fear of falling off because they were laughing so much, the conference was in chaos. It was abandoned in disarray.

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