"It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems"
About this Quote
“It’s not the time” is the statesman’s most elegant way of saying “I don’t want to pay the price.” Patten’s line skewers that evasion with the calm impatience of someone who’s watched governments hide behind calendars. By insisting it is “almost always wrong” to claim the moment isn’t ripe, he’s attacking a familiar political superstition: that history will someday deliver a frictionless window for choices that are inherently costly.
The subtext is procedural cowardice dressed up as prudence. “Ripe” sounds organic, as if policy decisions mature naturally and any push would bruise them. Patten punctures that myth by pointing out the phrase’s real habitat: “difficult problems.” Not easy ones, not the symbolic bills that let leaders collect applause. Only the problems that force trade-offs, anger powerful constituencies, or reveal administrative limits. In other words, timing talk isn’t neutral analysis; it’s a tactic to postpone accountability.
Context matters with Patten: a British Conservative who governed Hong Kong in its final, politically charged years and later operated in the EU’s slow-grind machinery. He knows how delay becomes a policy in itself, how committees and “review periods” can be used to exhaust opponents and outlast headlines. The quote’s intent is to reframe decisiveness as the responsible option, not the reckless one. Waiting doesn’t reduce complexity; it just shifts the burden to whoever comes next, usually with fewer tools and more resentment. Patten’s punchline is bleakly optimistic: the time is never “ripe” for hard choices, so leaders might as well act like leaders.
The subtext is procedural cowardice dressed up as prudence. “Ripe” sounds organic, as if policy decisions mature naturally and any push would bruise them. Patten punctures that myth by pointing out the phrase’s real habitat: “difficult problems.” Not easy ones, not the symbolic bills that let leaders collect applause. Only the problems that force trade-offs, anger powerful constituencies, or reveal administrative limits. In other words, timing talk isn’t neutral analysis; it’s a tactic to postpone accountability.
Context matters with Patten: a British Conservative who governed Hong Kong in its final, politically charged years and later operated in the EU’s slow-grind machinery. He knows how delay becomes a policy in itself, how committees and “review periods” can be used to exhaust opponents and outlast headlines. The quote’s intent is to reframe decisiveness as the responsible option, not the reckless one. Waiting doesn’t reduce complexity; it just shifts the burden to whoever comes next, usually with fewer tools and more resentment. Patten’s punchline is bleakly optimistic: the time is never “ripe” for hard choices, so leaders might as well act like leaders.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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