We regret to inform those who bought tickets for Intelligence Squared's upcoming debate on October 29 that they may feel a twinge of disappointment at a change in the speaker line-up. They are to be deprived of the wit and wisdom of Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who was due to speak in favour of the motion "China picks better leaders than the West".
She will be travelling on that day, but a distinguished replacement has been found in former solicitor general Daniel Fung Wah-kin. In 1990, Fung became the youngest member of the Hong Kong Bar to be appointed Queen's Counsel. He has recently been a visiting scholar at Harvard and at Yale law schools, and since 2000, Fung has had appointments as a director of the Salzburg Global Seminar and as Fulbright visiting scholar for Hong Kong to the United States. He's also been a member of various government commissions.
There was a slight hiccup in his distinguished career in 2010 when he was fined HK$300,000 as he found himself on the wrong end of a professional misconduct decision by the Barristers Disciplinary Tribunal Panel.
He will be speaking in favour of the motion alongside Daniel Bell, the Tsinghua University Confucian philosopher and scholar.
Something is evidently going right for some people somewhere. Demand for British butlers is soaring. The London agency, Bespoke Bureau, says it has placed 345 butlers so far this year, twice as many as in all of 2011.