Percentages

[Quizmonster]

On one of yesterday evening's news broadcasts, George Osborne made a comment...I believe it was about the departing Louise Mensch's contribution to Parliament and her constituents...involving the phrase, "110 percent."
It occurs to me that such a failure to grasp even the simplest of arithmetical concepts might explain why virtually everything he has touched at the Treasury has fallen apart.
(To placate those who claim one must present a question here rather than a statement, I add, "Do you agree?")

[ChuckFickens]

I agree 150%

[jno]

well, you're being pernickety, QM! His failure in this case is not really mathematical, it's in abandoning himself to the vapid language of hype.

[ChuckFickens]

To answer seriously.... It's just (common) a figure of speech meaning that the person went beyond the normal expectations, it's not a indication of an inability to grasp mathematical concepts at all.

[factor-fiction]

I don't like the term either but the expression is quite common now in management-speak and in other circles (football especially) as a way of conveying that you will try to achieve a target and then try even harder.

[Gromit]

It is a stupid phrase at the best of times, but for a Chancellor of the Exchequer to use it, is particularly inapt.
Kind of sums the man up neatly though.

[jake-the-peg]

it depends on the context

It's become a slightly lazy truism to say that 110% is impossible when clearly it can be meaningful.

I dare say no-one would turn down a 110% rise!

One could give 110% effort when compared to an average effort of one's colleagues.

But in reality what we're looking at is an expression, a metaphor which has found it's way into the English language and isn't intended to be taken literally any more than any more of the hundreds of other metaphors.

To think that it has any relevance to arithmetic is severely missing the point

If someone complained of repeating themselves "a million times" I rather assume you wouldn't pick them up on it

No I wouldn't agree I think you're letting pedentry run away with you

[FredPuli43]

Of course, he may have meant that she was 10 per cent better, on some statistical measure, than the normal MP. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer , after all, and certain to be a wiz at statistics, percentages, and maths in general!

[Quizmonster]

For pity's sake! I know none of you can actually see my cheek, but my tongue was firmly in it when I posted! Obviously, it was also an opportunity to have a bit of fun at Gideon's expense.
(I have a higher degree in English, so I really don't need anyone to tell me what a metaphor is.)

[Quizmonster]

Fred, he didn't say she gave 10% more than others...no others were mentioned...he said she gave 110%. Metaphor or not, no she didn't.

[factor-fiction]

Hi Quizmonster- I think there was good range of responses here. If these answers deserve a "for pity's sake" I'm not sure what sort of responses you were looking for.

[Quizmonster]

F30, you may remember that, a few years ago, Gordon Brown made a slip of the tongue when, instead of suggesting his actions had saved banks from disaster, he actually said in Westminster that he had "saved the world". Do you also remember how the Tories and the right-wing gutter press cackled on about it thereafter?
Well, I think I have the same right to extract the urine from a Tory who also said something silly. In addition, I thought people would see the joke.

[factor-fiction]

Okay, but I think Gordon Brown's 'Saving the world' comment was funnier.

[FredPuli43]

Well, QM, you may forgive a desperate attempt to defend a Tory! As usual, the figures, or the lack of them, don't make sense.

[Quizmonster]

Well, there's no accounting for taste in humour, I suppose!

[jno]

I rather liked Mensch... any MP who hasn't spent all his or her life in politics is always going to be more rounded and more interesting than the rest. But I expect her other job, plus family, is just too time-consuming.

(Which implies that she wasn't giving 110% to her constituents after all, but there you are.)

[Gromit]

She seemed extremely clever. Which might be why she is abandoning ship early. A tricky bye-election for Cameron who may lose the seat, and Clegg who may lose their deposit.

[Quizmonster]

Actually, J, what it suggests is that she was giving substantially less than 100% to Parliament and constituents, which makes the Giddy 'un even more wrong!

[jno]

well, that was my thought, QM, but parliamentary maths are even trickier than the normal kind so I decided not to attempt the calculation.

[Mick-Talbot]

I think they have sat round a table and decided that using the phrase 110 percent is the way forward. I posted this after watching Ozzy then 4 or 5 minutes later Dave on the news.


......................................


Dunno but George Osbourne has just said he thinks we should re-double our efforts and he is 110% focused on the economy.


not a very bright thing for a Chancellor of the Exchequer to say.


DC Has just said the exact same thing .... What The Funicular

22:27 Wed 25th Jul 2012

[Mick-Talbot]

So is re-doubling our efforts 220% ?