I suspect he’s been there for quite some time.

Grey suits and matching pallors. These boys really do need to get out more.

Lovely article and what a levelheaded and likeable man. Should be compulsory reading for any delusional “self-made”…err….persons who could do with a dose of perspective. “If I’d gone through a different door”

My entirely coherent position is that things can only get better (but they can also get worse).

You’ve just transported me back to geography class, circa 1977!

Until they form an oxbow lake and run straight(er) again?

They could learn from wartime government and acknowledge that if we’re all in this together we need to balance awareness of the gravity of the situation with keeping up the morale necessary to endure it and prevail. Get us to believe it’ll be worth it. Too many have had enough already.

I don’t know about polling but I do think we’re hitting diminishing marginal returns every time the “£22bn black hole” is mentioned, for example. Repeated bludgeoning with messages of doom is not the background music I want as I’m being fitted for my hairshirt.

I’d say it’s just as patronising to keep telling people what’s been bleedin’ obvious for years. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking “yes, yes, we know we’re in the shit. Tell us what you’re going to do about it”. We can wait a bit to hear the plan but we need to see some vision and hope behind it.

True, it’s rarely used accurately. But it’s a bit like people referring to someone being “missing in action” when they really mean “AWOL”.