Taking their phones off them

It’s =its- if I don’t correct it someone else will come along to do it

I wonder if that is a security precaution with so many devices able to be switched on remotely.

When you watch clips from the Commons, MPs are regularly seen to be on their phones, and don’t tell me that’s urgent constituency business! More likely to be FaceBook, Twitter or Candy Crush Saga.
Like kids in a classroom, so taking their phones off the Cabinet sounds like excellent sense.

Wise precaution really with the bunch of leaky, backstabbing, self serving, lying and utterly comtemptible politicians she chose to surround herself with.

What's the betting they all smuggle another phone in with them?

Why do people need phones on every minute of the day? If you're at work, you switch your phone off. In the HoC, if something really urgent came up that a Minister had to respond to, couldn't a note, you know, written on paper, be passed down so the Minister could decide whether to respond immediately, or let it wait till recess.
It's one of my pet hates, don't accept children should have mobiles with them in class. Don't agree with teachers who say mobiles can be useful to research a subject in class.
I feel certain things wouldn't grind to a halt if people switched off their phones to concentrate on whatever they're doing at one time.

This demonstrates just how low this Tory government has sunk when the most senior members of it have their phones removed from them prior to a meeting for fear of those phones owners using them to undermine other meeting members.

In the meantime, Jacob Rees Mogg (the Minister for the 18th-century) and his friends in the Bow group informs all those attending the meeting what they can and cannot agree to under threat that they will bring down the whole government.

What a complete and utter shambles in the truest sense of the words.

It’s the having to take the phones away that says so much - unlike the cabinet,I work with grown ups, often in highly sensitive, absolutely confidential situations. We simply turn our phones off so we are not interrupted - no one would dream that we would secretly record or be tweeting or texting what was happening as we went along. But as I said, we are grown ups who actually take our work seriously and don’t put our own personal self interest first, unlike the vast majority of the cabinet.

Sadly I think this is not just a “Tory thing” (but why miss an opportunity to knock, eh Grandad?) but symptomatic of much of our society.
Like the audience members at “Titanic the Musical” recently who followed England’s penalty shoot out on their mobiles and cheered each successful shot at goal.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/world-cup-england-penalties-phones-theatre-actors-anger-titanic-nottingham-a8433136.html

I think it’s about time a team from GN took over running the country.
It beggars belief that this is considered necessary. But it probably is.
Will they be sent to bed without any supper if they are naughty.

maryeliza54, you are perfectly correct. In our office, our phones are in use continuously for document creation, emails, texting messages to others in the office and even at times calling people on them. They are in our hands all the time. However, when it comes to meetings we all just mute them or just turn them off for the duration.

However in this government obviously the trust is so low between cabinet members that to even have a phone on a member is not trusted and therefore not allowed.

Perhaps 'they' know some things that we don't know about the capabilities built in to theses clever little devices. Only saying it's a possibility as I really don't know .

It would be exactly the same whichever political party were endeavouring to broker a deal! The whole of society from walking round a supermarket to getting married to going to the pub, to going to bed, you name it, the phone is virtually glued to the ear!! Grandad, why do keep making references to your office? We know you still work which is fine, but why do we have to constantly be told that you are in, about to go to, or just about to leave your office? Does this make you somehow more superior to us? or more admirable? Tbh I find it irritating!

Ah but people in offices (and even more important people *in meetings*) are clearly very busy and important people, not like old dears perceived as being at home doing their knitting even if they are qualified consultants, brain surgeons, barristers and judges, social workers, economists, GLs, lecturers or professors.

GPs of course!

The taking of phones away is simply because they cannot be trusted not to leak - it’s not about the ubiquitous or inappropriate use of the mobile phone - but because many in the cabinet are a bunch of self serving individuals who can’t be trusted and will always put themselves first. Grown ups in the work place do not have to have their phones taken away from them. What a state we are in

The taking of phones away is simply because they cannot be trusted not to leak - it’s not
;about the ubiquitous or inappropriate use of the mobile phone^

Gosh maryeliza, do you know that for a fact? Or is it conjecture?
For the record, supermarket floor staff, teachers and nurses are not allowed to have their mobile phones with them in the workplace. And I'm pretty sure they're "grown ups".

niggly I agree, we don’t need telling constantly what another poster is about to do, or that they may be back to comment later on, when they are not so busy.

Perhaps it’s for the best, taking phones away and getting on with the business at hand.
They may all be playing Fortnite otherwise.You would be surprised ( I was) at how even people in high profile jobs are doing exactly that.
I play this with DGS who is a teenager and very quick off the mark, whereas I don’t last long at all ( and prefer, once landed on the island, to find a safe house to hide in.)?

Well certainly not true about nurses and teachers as a general rule - depends on employer.

lemon and nellie your posts are nasty and mean and pretty bloody childish - you’d be ace in the Csbinet

Cannot see the problem myself.

I am sure that I have read somewhere that there are certain restaurants that require you to hand in your phones. I think it is to do with other diners privacy, as nearly every phone is also a camera or recording device.

I personally feel a fabulous sense of freedom when I have accidentally left my phone at home, what a joy to be out of reach for a while. I think most of us on this forum can remember not having a mobile, we managed perfectly well.

Taking their phones off them ,makes it sound like a necessary requirement, conjures up images of misbehaviour & sly texting, leaking information etc.
Where as if it had the subject been titled ,phones not allowed when conference is in session would just sound like a reasonable hing to do. Do we know which was the case here?

Sensible point Brid ??

Thank you Lemons,sorry about missing letters, over eager?

Good point Bridgeit

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