This is due in part to German prickliness about fully integrating a foreign minority.

ECONOMIST: Post-wall German fiction

Turkey's growing influence has fostered a new national confidence that has replaced decades of paranoia and prickliness.

ECONOMIST: Turkey's referendum

The challenge to Mr Tusk comes from PiS, which blends patriotic conservatism and prickliness to foreigners with socially minded Catholicism.

ECONOMIST: Polish politics

At Google Ms Mayer had a reputation for prickliness, but also for nurturing talent and helping staff to cope with heavy workloads.

ECONOMIST: Marissa Mayer takes on one of the toughest jobs in tech

With mutual prickliness running high, the stand-off looks set to continue.

ECONOMIST: A new tribute to the Parthenon

According to Mr Gevisser, the extreme prickliness Mr Mbeki commonly shows when faced with criticism is also the result of the terrible frustration he feels at being unable fully to deliver on the impossible expectations of his fellow South Africans.

ECONOMIST: Thabo Mbeki