Richard Godwin explores the curious world of pitch-rolling — Modern Life
Pitch-rolling is a cricketing term. It’s what a groundsman does to prepare a pitch before a game. He trundles a massive cylindrical weight back and forth, evening out the bumps, compacting the grass for optimal bounce and creating lovely green stripes in the outfield. The term has, alas, migrated to politics. It is now what politicians do to prepare the ground for an unpopular announcement. Say you are Chancellor and intend to use the upcoming budget to announce a series of manifesto-breaking tax rises. Well, a week or two beforehand, you must ‘roll the pitch’: deliver a speech making reference to ‘difficult decisions’, ‘fiscal headwinds’ and ‘economic imperatives’ and how you must deal with the world as you find it not as you wish it to be. That way, when you do eventually bowl a 90mph bodyline leg-breaker to the British taxpayer, you can at least be sure that it...
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