Lots of you will have already been there, but for those who haven’t seen it, John Falkner’s speech in launching Latham’s bio is terrific. And what did Falkner go an do? Resign :(
*PS – thanks to Liam Hogan for correction on the simple task of spelling Faulkner’s name. I left out the ‘u’ above, but will leave my mistake – corrected here – for the record.
It’s ‘Faulkner’.
The speech was terrific though. If only every upper-house member in every Parliament was as competent as he.
Thanks for the correction Liam.
By the way, I think you should have written “as competent as HIM”
It’s a case for the nominative case, Nicholas. ‘as competent as he’ may not be euphonious, but it is correct.
The pedants are coming out to play on Troppo.
Liam may live to see victory!
But if you want to use “he” wouldn’t it need to be “he is”?
Nicholas, you’ll be happy to know that a spelling mistake got Chris Sheil a tag as a “leading intellectual” on Mark Steyn’s site (via tim blair):
http://larvatusprodeo.redrag.net/2005/07/05/530/
I’m with Liam:
“I know no-one as beautiful as she”.
Scans better.
I confess I was unaware Liam was trying to scan. Just goes to show, you shouldn’t make assumptions.
Lucky he wasn’t trying to rhyme. :)
Mark and Liam are right. ‘No-one as competent as he’ is correct because (pace Nicholas) it’s a contraction of ‘No-one as competent as he IS’..You can’t say ‘….him IS’.
A similar rule applies with regard to the use of ‘me’ and ‘I’. ‘None so deluded as I’ is right, because ‘…me’ followed by ‘am’ is clearly wrong. ‘Roger and me went shopping’ is wrong for the same reason, i.e. me can’t go shopping, only I can.
Phew! Language – how I love it.
I think I’m losing.
But right about the main thing, Nicholas, which is that it was a great speech. By far the best defence/explanation of the Mark Latham adventure that I’ve seen, and rather better, one gathers, than the book it launched.
Ahem…cough…I think it should be ‘were’. That is,
“If only every upper-house member in every Parliament were as competent as he.”
Contrary-to-fact condition, subjunctive, etc. Not that I really care. Of course, I’m happy to be corrected on this.
‘Were’ is undoubtedly correct, grumpymatt.
I think some commenters are advancing propositions up with which should not be put. English is not Latin and language is a medium of communication, not an arena for competitive archaism.
I knew someone was going to say that. Spoilsport.
I think Faulkner is one of the best Senate performers. I used to hear Faulkner and Abetz on NewsRadio going hammer and tongs. It was great.
Guilty as charged. At least one posted no hotlinks about the death of the subjunctive as one felt moved. (‘to do’ not understood)