Thursday 31 July 2008

Grammar Police: Words That Sound The Same Are Not The Same

So, I'm currently getting small amounts of money from our lovely government, and thanks to this I've discovered the reason Labour are going down the crapper: their grammar is awful. My benefits agreement says:

Must be willing to:
1. Travel at least 1.5 hours to work
2. Except jobs at minimum wage.

Now, where they say "at least", they mean "at most". Otherwise they would have found me a job in Sunderland or Abergavenny. And they would have told me not to apply for a job in the centre, because that's only twenty minutes away and I have to travel at least an hour and a half (I suppose I could drive round and round and round). And where they say "except" they of course mean "accept". They would like me to "accept" jobs at minimum wage. They do not want me to "except" them. They do not want me to come in and say, "Well, this place offered me a job, but it's only minimum wage, so I can't take it. You told me to except those jobs."

Memo to the Auditor: You got lots of points for your non-bigoted voting in the IVF and abortion bills. Please don't squander them with grammar like this. Sort it out.

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