The things they say

“This is a problem and I think it could get worse. It is disruptive to the business. We had to close, in the last seven days, 33 pubs due to lack of staff because of self-isolation”

– Nick Mackenzie, chief executive of Greene King,

on closures due to staff being told to isolate by the

NHS Covid app. “The cyber attack on Microsoft Exchange Server by Chinese state-backed groups was a reckless but familiar pattern of behaviour. The Chinese government must end this systematic cyber sabotage and can expect to be held to account if it does not”

– Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on a hacking attack in early 2021 which

affected more than a quarter of a million servers

worldwide. “I think it is safe. I mean, I’ve always been of the view that we should stick to the words in the manifesto. Of course, things have happened, like Covid. Like the fact that we spent £350 billion in one year to support the economy. And I think any government, any group of politicians or civil servants, will debate how we can raise the money.

But as far as I am concerned, the triple lock is still here”

– Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on the pensions

“triple lock”. “It remains the core of the problem that the boundary between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is too dissuasive, too complicated, too chilling of identity in various ways. And that’s what’s got to be solved, I think, in terms of direction of travel. So we’re keeping, obviously, all options on the table”

– Brexit minister Lord Frost on the Northern Ireland

Protocol. “After decades spent in cupboards and attics, I thought it was about time he came back out into the world. It would be lovely to see him cuddled again by a new owner or taking pride of place in a museum alongside my mother’s story. Blitzy is a reminder of what children had to endure during the Second World War in Manchester”

– Jon McCue, on a teddy bear owned by his mother during the war, which is due to go under the

hammer.

Dominic Raab, Kwasi Kwarteng and Lord Frost