Campaign for Better English

Before anyone has a go at me for bad spelling I will point out that I type mistakes faster than my keyboard can read them, so the odd one slips through. Having got that out of the way I will come to my point, which is th epoor use of English prevalent in our society.

I will start with disabled people. There are very few disabled people in England. The blind are in fact the only exception, as there is nothing we can do to help them actually see again. We can make things a little easier with guide dogs, but we can't restore their sight. Their sight is disabled, and as a result to a great degree so are they. Now moving on to people with one leg. If they remain with only one leg, then I would have to agree they have a disablity. If however they have a prosthetic limb fitted, they are no longer disabled, they have in fact been enabled. They may still be disadvantaged, and that is my point. No offence meant to these people, but perhaps they too ought to be campaigning for proper recognition of what they are - they are not a lesser citizen in any way, they are equal, or arguably superior, becasue they have overcome the disabilty they once had. Douglas Bader being a case in point. He would have kicked your arse if you said he was disabled, and with legs made of metal it would have hurt too.

Moving on, I heard a policeman the other day say he was working on a campaign to promote drink driving. Surely not! Drink driving is highly irresponsible and illegal, and the police should almost certainly be campaigning against it, not to promote it. What he meant, I'm sure is that he was promoting awareness in an effort to reduce drink driving, but his use of English, as in many cases was flawed.

Now I'm not perfect, but this is something that irks me. Three armed men robbiong a post officer would certainly be news, but only in a medical publication, whilst three men, armed, robbing a post office would be an accurate description of the incident. Assumming, of course, that three men, all of whom were armed, took part in the robbery and that it was in a post office. And that the men in question did not, against all probabilty in human evolution, have three arms each.

The theft of a Black mans bicycle, to me suggests a potential racist incident, whilst the theft of a bicycle, coloured balck, or even black in colour suggests a simple random theft.

Any one else any examples of this misuse of English they would wish to share?