No elephants, no ostriches

"A nice bit of bullshit can be incredibly appealing."

That was Mike Berners-Lee's summary of what's wrong with political discourse, shared at Anthropy UK 2026.

But as business leaders, we can be guilty of it too. Perhaps we are trying to protect our people from the peaks and troughs of commerce, perhaps we don't interrogate things deeply enough ourselves.

My friend David Ventura talks about 'looking in the ugly mirror'.

I insist on no elephants in the room, no ostriches with their heads in the sand.

Because it's only when you face up to the full truth that you can make real plans and progress.

And as Mike concluded, "It's impossible to pull bullshit back in the bottle".