I had to have a good think about this, and having slept on it, am convinced
that Chris is perfectly correct. "The Prime Minister reported that he WAS
keen to preserve the State Pension" accurately reflects what the PM said at
the time. We cannot know from the source quoted what the PM's inclination is
now (a change of mind by a politician? Heaven forfend!) and thus the use of
the present tense is both grammatically ugly and factually unfounded
(perhaps misleading, perhaps not).
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Barker [mailto:ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 05 January 2014 14:14
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Small Town Infrastructure - 100% Crop
No, because it's reported speech. The second part should be the same time
as the first.
Chris
On 5 Jan 2014, at 11:48, Andrew Fildes <afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Huh? "The Prime Minister reported that he is keen to preserve the State
Pension." A person reported in the recent past that he is (continuing to be)
of a particular opinion or attitude. Is that not grammatical? Perfect
commenting on Present Continuous. They are two different things and can
command different tenses, surely. Or did he retort or was it that he 'was
reported to be'? :-)
> Andrew Fildes
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