A piece on whether Theresa May is dynamic enough to deliver a rousing Brexit speech, the rise of ultra-processed fake meat and TfL’s near £1bn deficit next year have got you talking today.
To join in the conversation you can click on the links in the comments below to expand and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth reading as the day goes on.
Theresa May … another vacuous speech on the farcical road to Brexit
Trying to decode the PM’s utterings is futile, she has nothing to report and isn’t an interesting enough speaker to bluff it says Hannah Jane Parkinson.
‘It wouldn’t matter if May were a brilliant speaker’
While I agree with these sentiments, I don’t think it would matter if she were a brilliant speaker. Like the Berlin Wall and Apartheid, Brexit is just wrong and will fail. Johnson is also wrong but clever: to play the EU political unioncard is as smart as the £350 million lie in that it will enrage people, but it is not true either. There is no appetite in Europe for political union. So, more lies, more time wasting, a very slow death.
orbacem
‘They have obviously all used the same coach’
“One of May’s greatest rhetorical tics is to announce “Let me be clear”, and then follow up with opacity.”
Let’s be clear - this phrase is used as the prefix to incomprehensible hogwash by many politicians. They have obviously all used the same coach. Perhaps the greatest exponent of this phrase was Ed Miliband with his “I want to be absolutely clear” as the opener to any question, usually followed by a pre-scripted response which had nothing whatsoever to do with the question asked.
SmartestRs
The Quorn revolution: the rise of ultra-processed fake meat
It was reported last week that Quorn is on course to become a billion-dollar business. It is part of a booming industry of meat alternatives – but many of these products are a far cry from the idea of a natural, plant-based diet.
‘Their whole point is that they are NOT meat’
“Fake” indicates an intention to deceive, a forgery, a lie. Quorn and its likes are NOT fake meats. Their whole point is that they are NOT meat. They may or may not be healthy and they may or may not decrease cruelty to animals, but they definitely do not pretend to be meat. On the contrary, they would be fakes if they were found to contain meat derivatives.
johnlondesborough
‘I don’t understand why vegetarians would want to eat something which tries to resemble meat’
I eat meat but completely understand that no everyone wants to. However, I don’t understand why vegetarians would want to eat something which tries to resemble meat, when there are so many not-over-processed, tasty alternatives available.
hippo42
‘Who gives a crap about something being ‘natural’?’
Pigs don’t have sausages for limbs and I’m pretty sure there’s no houmous plant. Using ‘processed’ as as a wholly pejorative word when it comes to food is such a weak argument. That’s not to say that some processed food isn’t terrible for you, but a lot is better than ‘unprocessed’ bacon. I guess killing and butchering a pig doesn’t count as processing though. Who gives a crap about something being ‘natural’?
hozhoz
TfL facing near £1bn deficit next year after journey numbers fall
Shrinking passenger numbers have forced the London transport authority to ditch some of its tube upgrade plans. The capital’s commuters were among those sharing reaction.
‘There’s a resource starvation in the rest of the country’
Well – “ridership on the bus, tube and rail services is regularly outperforming that elsewhere across the country”.
So it bloody well should, given the resource starvation in the rest of the country and the cheapness of the fares in London.
Storth
‘London is no longer sustainable’
London is no longer sustainable. Young people can’t buy in the capital and so are leaving in droves. Private landlords don’t live in London and flats are owned by rich people and overseas owners who don’t use public transport. Salaries aren’t going up and those you do hang on are using bikes.
David Adams
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