Saw the story about Myer CEO Bernie Brookes saying the department store chain is opening an online shop, shipping stuff out of a warehouse in China to avoid GST. Checked the date. Think it was April 1. I don't think Bernie was quite serious.

Those who heard him though believe it was December 3. Calendars can be tricky at this time of year.

And tenses and the language in general can be tricky too. “We will” can well mean “we intend to” rather than “we are”. And “we intend to” can mean “we're thinking about it”. And sometimes “we” can mean “I” – just ask the Queen. So it's not impossible that Bernie might have meant:

“I'm thinking about starting an internet shop in China, popping $29.99 men's comfort slacks with hidden waste expander panels and Breville toasters into boxes and dropping them into China Post for our Australian customers. That'll cook Wayne Swan's goose. That'll undermine the taxation system and make the Treasurer see sense, make him post (sorry) tax collectors in every Australia Post shop, jammed in between the Bing Crosby Christmas CDs and sundry soft toys in the space left over from the Oz Bank idea.”

I could be totally wrong about that, Myer might really be about to launch the Shenzhen shop in February, or it might be trying to apply pressure in Canberra with a threat.