thedanglingmodifier.co.uk

I have been trying to get my head round the Climategate scandal – but it’s useless. I don’t understand the words.
› Continue reading

Nothing makes me happier than reading stories about the imminent demise of ‘social media networking’, even when they’re published in my least favourite newspaper. But wouldn’t you know… just as everyone else is growing out of this puerile nonsense, the World Economic Forum (who are meeting for their annual shin-dig in Davos this week) are embracing it.

› Continue reading

Paranoia is not a kind word, and kind words are what I have been seeking for a long time now. I’ve tried to shut out the suspicions that nag. I have even clasped my hands over my ears but that only makes the laughter louder – I mean of course the monstrous guffaws of the conspirators who laugh at editorial staff everywhere. So how satisfying to see one of them unmasked this week at the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war.

› Continue reading

Ever since I came across the Unthank Road in Norwich, I have liked the notion of unthanking people – especially the sort of clients who really have no respect for editorial staff or skills, and who describe plain English as ‘dumbing down’.
› Continue reading

I have been reading more about the property developer’s plans to build near my house. I found the details from “within the Application Quick Search box” on my local council’s website.

I have trawled through the documents that the council invited me to comment on. I have looked at all the plans, the mock-ups, studied the transport statements and ‘proposed elevations’.

The developers say they are going to protect the local bats. They have issued what they call a ‘Sustainability Statement’. It uses a lot of initial caps, for example “Proposed Development” and “Planning Application”. I don’t think the developers employ any subeditors. And even though I think this is an important issue, I suspect my local council won’t agree.

So I’m trying to ignore the misuse of capital letters. It’s not easy. I don’t think anyone understands unless they’ve spent days, weeks and years, weeding these sorts of things out and correcting them. These people don’t know the pain they cause. It’s like throwing a ball for a dog and then choking it on its lead when it runs to fetch.

Or may they do. May be they’re laughing.

But I’m determined to ignore all that, because I want to read the ‘Sustainability Statement’. I want to know how ‘sustainable’ the development is going to be, so I read on. It’s an interesting statement, with lots of background information on policy. It turns out that:

“The Rio Earth Summit saw the culmination of increasing global environmental and sustainability concern in the development of a number of multilateral outputs.”

I read the rest of the page on policy – international, European, national and local. I understand the other bits, the rest of the page is clear. It’s only the paragraph about international policy that is unnerving.

Could it be that those others, the conspirators, have infiltrated the very highest circles of international cooperation?

I have to grip the table as implications of this wash over me. This is not just about laughing at editorial staff. This is about something much, much bigger. How typical of me not to see the bigger picture before now, but then of course I woudn’t, would I? I’m the sort of person who checks spelling. No wonder I didn’t see it before now.

But if I’m right about this… if those others – the conspirators – infiltrated the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, what other international organisations have they got their evil talons into? How many other languages are they mucking up?