Oh my Lord.

I’d always thought my dad’s generation to be a little tactless at times.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Dad to bits, but he’s not known for his diplomacy.

For example when my mum and I were going to Weight Watchers he’d say,

“So, are you off to fat club then?”

Others more infamously known for their lack of tact are of course George Bush and our very own Prince Philip who ‘whilst on a tour of a factory in northern England, Prince Philip pointed out a fuse box that looked quite old. He said “it looks like it was made by an Indian!”‘

How rude!

According to Wikipedia.org

” Tact is a careful consideration of the feelings and values of another so as to create harmonious relationships with a reduced potential for conflict or offense. Tact is considered a virtue.”

A good example would be Mr Bennet in Pride and Prejudice who I think handles his pleasant but none too bright and kind of overbearing wife, and his younger daughters with the utmost tact yet still manages to be witty and not lose himself in diplomacy.

e.g.

Mrs Bennet: Have you no consideration for my poor nerves?

Mr Bennet: You mistake me, my dear. I have the utmost respect for your nerves. They’ve been my constant companion these twenty years.

I’m sure he would have rather said something like,

“Your nerves? What about my nerves? I’m blooming well fed up of your blooming nerves stamping all over mine and generally ruling my life.”

But instead he calmed his wife while still managing to hint at other things to the intelligent observer.

The lovely Simon Cowell (who has brought to the world X Factor and American Idol), however, has no notion of tact.

In fact he firmly admits,

“If I said to most of the people who auditioned, ‘Good job. awesome, well done,’ it would have made me look and feel ridiculous.”

(angrysimon.com 2007)

That’s why he feels comfortable saying stuff like this,

“You’re useless, I’m bored.”

“If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning.”

“That was extraordinary. Unfortunately it was extraordinarily bad.”

“You sang like you were on a dentist’s chair.”

Ok I admit it, sometimes tact is just not enough to get over the point, but there are certain situations when it just has to be used.

This is one of them.

I was browsing the news today and came across this story about how Indian parents and singles are using a wedding website called bhartmatrimnony.com to look for suitable partners for themselves or their offspring.

Mrs Khatoon states that for her daughter she wants,“..an IT professional,” she says, “preferably someone based in London, or someone who has the opportunity to work overseas in the future.”

Apparently I.T workers are now in high demand.

They are the new Doctors, Surgeons etc of the dating world. No longer banished to the realm of geekdom. No longer seen as mullet topped sci-fi fans. Oh no, IT is now hip, cool and glamourous.And don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with this (IT workers or online dating services). It’s great.

My mate D met someone through match.co.uk and he’s fantastic and they get along brilliantly.

No, it was this quote from IT worker Frank Raman a Technology Manager, that got my goat.

(Don’t worry, my goat isn’t hurt. It escaped.)

“I wish this had happened when I was younger. I would have been able to benefit from it at that time – now I’m married, so girls looking to marry me I’m afraid are out of luck!”

What?

Has he even heard of tact?

All I can say is, thank God you are already married young man, and as for all those ladies on bharatmatrimony.com, well let’s face it, you’ve all probably had a lucky escape.

I just feel sorry for Mrs Raman, though I have a feeling she may not be Mrs Raman for much longer.

If I was her, I’d join bharatmatrimony straight away…or maybe propose to Simon Cowell.