Put this annual ritual to bed

IF there is one thing which can be said with some certainty about next Wednesday's Policy Address, it is that it is bound to be too long and boring.

This is despite the fact that Tung Chee-hwa seems to realise he risks sending his audience to sleep with such lengthy speeches. And despite his repeated vows, in recent years, to shorten them.

The Chief Executive has even pointed out that it is ridiculous for him to ramble on for more than two hours about Hong Kong when US President Bill Clinton has been known to whistle through his State of the Union address for the United States in just 75 minutes.

In theory, last year's switch to a new style of Policy Address should make it easier to be more concise. The idea is that instead of trying to cram everything the Government is doing into a single speech, Mr Tung will now just concentrate on spelling out a few key initiatives.

In 1999, he focused on how to tackle Hong Kong's worsening air pollution and other environmental problems. On Wednesday, if all the advance indications are correct, the emphasis will be on the growing gap between rich and poor. That should make for a short speech, since there is little prospect of the Government doing anything substantial to help those below the poverty-line.

But, try as he might, Mr Tung seems incapable of being more concise. Far from taking advantage of this new format to deliver a shorter speech last year, he spoke for two hours and 22 minutes, making it the longest Policy Address on record.

Aides tell of him repeatedly insisting on last-minute additions to the printed text, so explaining why Mr Tung's speeches always end up being far longer than expected.