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Rishi Zunak

Enjoyed listening to the Chancellor today.  Assured and confident speaker who presented his Budget clearly with no waffling. Very impressive young man.  👏🏻

Sue Hammond ● 2281d26 Comments

I wasn't criticising Johnson. He may well be right. I was contrasting how the media treat him with how they treated Corbyn.

David Ainsworth ● 2279d

Sue. Airports are empty at the moment because of the lack of business travellers as most large corporations have banned non essential travel, but I still couldn't get a seat on the tube 8am at East Putney!

Michael Ixer ● 2279d

Andy, DA and a few others on here would still criticise Boris even if he found the cure for Covid 19!

Sue Hammond ● 2279d

Johnson was obviously trying to manage expectations. Some of this is outside anyone's control, the question to be asked when its all over is how many died needlessly because of the cuts to the NHS during May's and Cameron's governments? Ploughing money into the NHS is too late now, there should have been investments in the NHS infrastructure and training of new staff over the past few years. Brexit has now become an unnecessary distraction: I see next week's trade negotiations have now been cancelled and come the end of March video conferencing options are being considered: I bet the Russian and Chinese government hackers are getting excited ... Still, this has proved that each individual's EU country has control over its own actions and the Czech government has today exercised its control over its own borders and closed them - what was all that taking back control nonsense about? 

Michael Ixer ● 2279d

Hi Bunny. I can understand the dilemma over your holiday but the decision whether to go or to cancel could be taken away from you. I cannot understand why all non-essential flights to and from the U.K. haven't already been cancelled. Why isn't the Government being more stringent to contain and limit the spread of Covid 19?  Restricting travel to and from the U.K. is a vital measure and pressure is now being put on Boris to do this, and to compensate people for any  consequential loss incurred. More and more people are abandoning public transport and the airports are practically empty which is extraordinary.  I have never seen any platform at Earls Court station deserted! https://mol.im/a/8104345

Sue Hammond ● 2279d

Bojo gets criticised as a liar so when he tells the truth what happens....he gets criticised !

Andy Pike ● 2279d

"If Diane Abbott was doing the budget figures, I'm sure she could cut the deficit in half overnight."Well, if we are going to play fantasy old politics, just imagine if Labour had won the election last December. Can you imagine what would have happened to a Corbyn who announced:-“It is going to spread further and I must level with you, I must level with the British public: many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”Imagine the headlines, the attacks!

David Ainsworth ● 2279d

There’s an entire forest of magic money trees out there apparently. This crisis will blow all these spending plans out the water. And yet we still plan to compound it all with a hard Brexit at the end of the year. I truly hope there is a serious rethink long before then.  The tyranny of events, dear boy, events, indeed!

Jonathan Callaway ● 2279d

Bunny, hopefully your flight will be cancelled and you'll get your money back. Even if you don't, no point going on a holiday if you going to be worried all the time? Take care anyway.

Jane Carter ● 2279d

If Diane Abbott was doing the budget figures, I'm sure she could cut the deficit in half overnight.

Mike Essam ● 2279d

I've been thinking for some time now that this virus is already out of control and all the Govt can do is damage limitation, not necessarily anyone's fault.Our health services clearly won't be able to cope when it gets really bad, so there's a lot of 'we'll throw money at it', but actually it's too late or it may have been impossible from the start.Sorry to be so gloomy, but batten down the hatches folks.... I believe that many people had an idea this would be really bad for a long time, just fingers have been firmly crossed that it would get to this.  I'm definitely in the danger zone, health wise, and I'm frankly scared, especially as I have a flight booked and paid for mid-April and am wondering whether to forget the holiday and write it off?  Really don't want to go to Gatwick and get on a 4-hour EasyJet flight!!

Bunny Payne ● 2279d

Michael W. I was, of course, being slightly flippant although I'm told by someone with a PPE degree from Oxford that if one wants to its possible to avoid most of the maths by selecting the appropriate options. I note Cameron didn't have a maths A level (history, history of art, politics & economics). I'd also note one could avoid maths in the MBA I did at the Open University. I can't speak for the Stanford MBA that Sunak did but even the Finance module I elected for didn't have much "real" maths in it, mainly complex arithmetic that one could do via spreadsheets; not like my PGDip in networks & telecoms where one could get one's teeth into Fourier analysis and Taylor/Maclaurin series :-) However, I suspect these days a good maths result is used by Oxford as a filter whether it's used on the course or not - a bit like I couldn't get in to Oxford to do maths in the late 60s because I didn't have Latin; still, Imperial College is a better science and technology university! But, seriously, Sunak's maths could well be excellent but it doesn't have to be great to get a PPE degree or MBA whereas you won't bluff your way through a Physics or Electrical Engineering degree without good maths, at least, not at IC :-)

Michael Ixer ● 2279d

It isn't required for "any" non STEM degree, but to get a place to read PPE at Oxford, because of the economics content, you won't get in without Grade A maths A Level - most students will have A*.Given that c. half of school leavers (let alone half the population, many of whom grew up when standards were even lower) don't have grade C GCSE and can't cope with simple percentages, this isn't half bad - in fact it is a very high degree of numeracy.It is very likely, as Oxford graduates that both Messrs Johnson (classics) and Cummings (history) have grade A GCSE in maths or A*. It's pretty hard to get into Oxford without this (and about 87 other A* GCSE's) unless you come from a poor school or deprived postcode area.Mr Sunak also has an MBA from a top business school and has worked for top flight investment banks and hedge funds. There is no way way that he has poor numeracy skills.These people are conniving self-serving scum-bags by choice. Don't blame their behaviour on lack of knowledge or ignorance; they know exactly what they are doing.

Michael Winstanley ● 2279d

The repeated catch phrases nowadays are really irritating and add nothing.  Just subliminal brainwashing.

Philippa Bond ● 2280d

Sadly the speech is really irrelevant these days (since Gordon Brown) as the devil is always in the detail.I don't even listen to it any more but wait until I can see the fine print!

Ed Robinson ● 2280d

Yes Frances!  Typing on my phone's tiny keyboard does cause me problems sometimes; this time a typo that was too late to edit. I'm surprised it took so long for someone to notice it lol. 😸

Sue Hammond ● 2280d

I think it's his policies and how they work out over the next year or so will be what he's judged on. The people I knew who worked with the "once sir" Fred Goodwin said he spoke with confidence and assurance; it's content not pressentation that counts in the end ...

Michael Ixer ● 2280d

It is high time that a percentage of recycled plastic be required in new plastic packaging instead of all virgin plastic.  This should encourage more recycling facilities instead of burning so much.  So this looks like a welcome change.  We still need much less though.

Philippa Bond ● 2280d

Ms Abbott has a degree in History from Cambridge, Mr Sunak has one in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford, the same as Mr Cameron. I'm not sure a high degree of numeracy is required for any non STEM degree.

Michael Ixer ● 2280d

Something to be said for getting his name right.

Frances Clarke ● 2280d

Diane Abbott has a degree from Cambridge

Sean Hodges ● 2281d

Promises Promises!  I'd like to see them get all these things done!  How many hospitals are we being offered now? Is nobody asking with the Tories where the money is coming from?

Philippa Bond ● 2281d

No Nick, the majority of Putney did not for Labour but most certainly against the Tories.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2281d

He's certainly pretty good at reading out the script that Cummings provided for him.

Matt Palmer ● 2281d

Maybe we should’ve had Dianne Abacus as chancellor? That’s who the majority of Putney voted for.

Nick Gulliford ● 2281d

He came across well... However, a lot of the 'promises' will not happen as "the situation and conditions will change" for whatever reason.Please bear in mind that our Crime Minister went on live national television and said that Coronavirus could be allowed to run through the population and that they would "have to take it on the chin".They don't care

Ben Rainbow ● 2281d