Talk:Mistakes were made/Archives/2014

Lessons have been learned
The subject declaration of this Article is often accompanied by the equally evasive "Lessons have been learned" (or "Lessons will be learned"), without any specification of what lessons, or by whom.

I suggest this running mate of the Article subject merits mention here, if not an Article of its own. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 13:31, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Redirect/merge proposal
I propose that the article Past exonerative be redirected to this article, where it is already mentioned and explained. That article is about a neologism; see WP:NOTNEO. And all of its references are about the subject of this article, "mistakes were made", so it is duplicative of this article. --MelanieN (talk) 01:14, 14 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Support wholeheartedly. If memory serves, "past exonerative" was a joke in the New York Times about "mistakes were made" and its ilk. Cnilep (talk) 02:17, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Support Joke name for the same topic. --Boson (talk) 21:42, 15 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I'll go ahead and do the redirect. --MelanieN (talk) 19:17, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Non-American examples?
Are there are any relevant non-American examples that could be included in the article? While this is a classic American political phrase, it must have been used elsewhere. Iain (talk) 01:28, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Good point. Here's one from David Cameron: . And here's a non-political one from the sports world: . Feel free to add. --MelanieN (talk) 03:27, 20 July 2014 (UTC)