QUOTES OF THE Week
“I say this to the country as a whole, we need to get ready to stay the course. To stay the course, because these reforms, these improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public, they will help to cut costs for farepayers up and down the country” - Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking at a meeting of the Cabinet on the first day of the largest rail strike for a generation.
”RMT members are leading the way for all workers in this country who are sick and tired of having their pay and conditions slashed by a mixture of big business profits and Government policy. Now is the time to stand up and fight for every single railway worker in this dispute that we will win” - RMT general secretary Mick Lynch on this week’s train strikes.
“One thing that will keep inflation higher for longer and undermine pay packets for longer is if we have spiralling public sector pay increases beyond what is responsible. And that’s what’s at issue here. It is precisely to protect the wages of those on the lowest incomes that we need to hold the line” - Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says the Government has to “hold the line” against the RMT’s demands for improved pay and conditions on the railways.
“We know without question that the Windrush generation have made our culture richer, our services stronger and our fellow countrymen safer” The Duke of Cambridge, as he attended the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument at London’s Waterloo Station. “Democracy counts. Brexit automatically delivers democracy. So it is working” - Lord Frost speaking on the sixth anniversary of the Brexit vote.
“Much to my shame, I thought it would be filled with old, stoned, bearded hippies who’d come from Stonehenge after the solstice. And we thought they’d all be flinging mud at us. We were pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn’t like that at all” Fatboy Slim reminisces about his first time playing Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage in 1986.
“It makes you doubt everybody because you’re like ‘Why would you choose me?’ - Singer Billie Eilish on how feeling “undeserving” of being a Glastonbury headliner has made her even more excited.
“I am going up in the world. I am a philanthropist now” - Musician Stormzy during a graduation speech as he received an honorary degree from the University of Exeter.