Shropshire Star

Peter Rhodes on rolling the pitch, hiking the premiums and trying to deter rioters

We have heard a lot of the expression “rolling the pitch,” and I fear we will hear much more. The literal meaning is to prepare a cricket pitch for seeding but it has come to mean softening up the public for bad news.

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Facing the full force of the law – seriously?

Chancellor Rachel Reeves who seems to specialise in bad news, has been doing her share of pitch-rolling lately, nurturing the idea that the financial black hole allegedly left by the Tories means “hard decisions” to come.

The insurance industry is doing the same. Having hammered us with soaring car premiums over the past year, insurers are now rolling the pitch for the next hike in home-insurance premiums, softening up its customers for some truly horrendous increases.