Back to school for Treasury bean counter Darren Jones after fluffing a TV simple test. Talk is that the chief secretary is to receive media remedial training to avoid blundering into avoidable traps following an unfortunate mishap on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday chat show. She asked if employers raging about National Insurance rises should “suck it up” and he, after a preamble, answered: “Yes, it’s been designed that way.” Kapow! What is known as the “yes mistake” to a question triggered hostile suck-it-up headlines despite Jones never uttering the words. Lawyer Jones holds a bioscience degree and lists Cambridge and Harvard among his alma maters on his LinkedIn page. The brainiest, grumbled a colleague with barely two GCSEs to rub together, lack common sense, and so require hand-holding.
Woodrow Wilson visited Carlisle, Jimmy Carter Washington in Sunderland, Bill Clinton Coventry and George W Bush Sedgefield. Is Donald Trump going to Clacton-on-Sea? Nigel Farage’s entourage insist the Reform UK leader is on a promise from the US president-elect. One jester quipped Trump could show the local MP the way to the Essex resort.
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