If it was "reported speech" (something I've never heard of) I would have
expected: The Prime Minister said: "I am keen to preserve the State
Pension." Changing the tense to agree as you require would be: The
Prime Minister reported that he was keen to preserve the State Pension.
That's easily misinterpreted as the Prime Minister used to think that
way but has changed his mind.
Far be it from me to dispute the master of English. I'll just say that:
Chuck Norcutt reported that he was keen to disagree with Chris Barker
but, of course, has changed his mind. :-)
Chuck Norcutt
On 1/5/2014 9:14 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
> 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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