Sentences with phrase «ultimate safe pair of hands»

However, after the agitation of heavy politicking behind the scenes by the ambitious painter, art historian and educationist Lawrence Gowing on his own behalf, the trustees selected Norman Reid, thought of as the ultimate safe pair of hands - and rather more, as it turned out - thus delivering a blow for which Robertson was never quite able to forgive either Gowing or life.

Director Ron Howard, who took over mid-production from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is Hollywood's ultimate safe pair of hands, and he delivers on the script by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan.

The shorthand caricature of the new chancellor of the exchequer is that he is the ultimate safe pair of hands in government: a hardworking, technocratic colleague who will happily and conscientiously take good care of tricky ministries.