Double...Redouble...

Yes. Perhaps they mean (although I doubt it!) that they have already doubled their efforts once, and will now do it again!

Yes, nag, I doubt it too. I think they use it because it just sounds more powerful than 'double'!

Annobel Sounding more powerful is why politicians never spend money; they always invest it.

And, absent, they never make 'cuts', always 'savings'.

And, they never make promises, because they can't keep them...

That's right, soop, but they do make 'pledges'.

...which are made 'perfectly unclear...'

I wonder when it will dawn on politicians that nobody actually believes anything they say?

When the holes in their bottoms heal over?

I also get miffed by "decimate" when used wrongly. It is to reduce by a 10th, not to a 10th.

phoenix

I think the boat has sailed on the 'decimate' issue!

I've probably said this before, but 'media' is one of my hobbyhorses and I fear that the boat has sailed on that one too. Media is, as you all know, the plural of 'medium'. And as for 'criteria': even children who didn't do classics at school used to be taught that this was plural, as is 'phenomena'.
Heigh Ho!