Saying sorry is easy but saying it like they mean it seems impossible

‘Learn about myself’, ‘learn from my actions’, ‘conquer my demons’, ‘a wake up call’, ‘pursuing shared feelings’, ‘was mistaken’, ‘fallen below the high standards’, ‘difficult conversations’, ‘face your missteps’, ‘been made aware’, ‘crossed the line’, ‘how benign my intent’, ‘caused upset’, ‘see things differently now’, ‘up until now’, ‘ebullient behaviour’, ‘examining my own behaviour’, ‘no time intended to upset anyone’.

No big prizes for guessing that those phrases are a selection taken from recent “apologies” from men, here, in the UK, and in the US, accused of sexual harassment over recent weeks and months.

It’s an interesting exercise to do a bit of cutting and pasting, and then to read them one after another to realise the perpetrators have more in common than their wandering hands, no matter where they were born and brought up.