To think that some (not all) of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s rules for communications are okay?

[CruCru]

I am not a fan of Jacob Rees-Mogg. I would hate to be made to refer to Imperial units because I don’t think in Imperial (presumably he does) and the Esq. thing is alien to me.

However, things like “Check your work”, having two spaces after a full stop and no comma after “and” are fair enough. I’m not sure about all the banned words or phrases but perhaps they are overused (to the point of being sloppy).

However my personal preference is step by step, sentence by sentence explanation. - that's not entirely true, because the example I posted at 14:49 was written by you, howabout - I did a quick search and it was something you wrote in January.

You should claim it regardless even if one of you is over the earnings limit, to protect your NI record.

This could be written better as two sentences. To protect your earnings limit you should claim. You may do this even if one of you is over the earnings limit.

Where J R-M comes across as a pompous twerp is that he is forgetting that the purpose of communication is clarity. His arbitrary rules become utterly stupid. We use SI units in science and he will look an absolute chump if he starts converting them to Imperial. As explained by someone above, now that we have word processors the two space rule after a full stop has now become obsolete.

As bored as me on t'internet then DadDadDad

I am very guilty of qualifying everything I write with sub-clauses. I have a legal background. The first attempt of my quote probably had 15 sub-clauses. That is why I need a rule to aspire to. The Metro has found numerous examples of JRM similarly in breach. Perhaps his rules are also about self-policing?

Much better Peregrina.

MN exacerbates my tendencies. I am usually in a hurry and trying to be brief. I may also be distracting myself from cooking dinner or arguing with DC various.

Peregrina - I might take out "regardless" but I don't agree that your two-sentence version is any better (I think your two sentences in fact lose some of the emphasis of the original).

I'm just not getting this blanket assertion that sub-clauses make it unclearer. Carefully structured sentences, where I judiciously use a sub-clause, seem to me quite capable of conveying meaning clearly and economically.

Just plucked a famous novel off the shelf and its opening line does not read

Except for the Marabar Caves, the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary. And, in any case, the caves are twenty miles off.

because it uses a sub-clause to much more clearly and economically make its point:

Except for the Marabar Caves - and they are twenty miles off - the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.

(Can you name the novel?)

SerenadeoftheSchoolRun has put it better than me. For whatever reason, this person does not want to sign letters or documents with “yourself” / “hopefully” / whatever else in. He doesn’t want subclauses (perhaps they result in long, difficult to read sentences). It may be easier for his staff if they know in advance what will be chucked back at him.

I had a boss who hated semicolons and removed them whenever he saw them (I did use them correctly). Meh. He knew what he was cool with signing.

I think it's a Passage to India by E.M. Forster?

The issue is not the rules, but the fact that he thinks this is best use of his time and that dictating this sort of detail is important.
@SabineUndine what makes you think that you know what he's thinking? Any private secretary will ask a new employer how they'd like their letters styled, it's pretty standard. He's just responded to that request.

Looking through the list, some items are a matter of etiquette (unfashionable as it is in these casual days); others about avoiding Americanisms (no full stop after "Mr" or "Miss"); there are some rules about buzzwords; and also about double-spacing even though software tends to do it automatically now.

I don't understand how preferring to use imperial measurements can be "outrageous". It's hardly the crime of the century, Talk about hyperbole. I struggle to think how the Leader of the House would need to read any scientific papers anyway. For general usage, most people still use imperial measurements (how tall are you, how fast are you going, what size trousers do you need, pints or halves, a quarter or a half-pound burger?)

That said, perhaps it explains the people causing tailbacks on the roads. They look at the 40 sign, think its means 40kph, and drive around at 25mph...

A Passage to India ?

I like subcauses.

JRM is not old. He's all of 50. He was 2 months old at the time of the moon landings. He was a toddler when decimal coinage was introduced. Imperial measurements were no longer routinely used when he was at school, only wheeled out occasionally for novelty value. I'm the same age and can jump between the two, though need Google to get a sense of Fahrenheit, PSI and the like.

Anyhow, he can fuck off to the US if he's so enamoured of imperial measurements.

AKA. things he leaked to the press in persuit of furthering his pathetic fucking act.

Anyhow, he can fuck off to the US if he's so enamoured of imperial measurements.

Where their liquid measurements differ, even though they have the same names!

As for the Leader of the House not needing to read scientific papers - do they not discuss science in Parliament?

That said, perhaps it explains the people causing tailbacks on the roads. They look at the 40 sign, think its means 40kph, and drive around at 25mph... I see you must be one of those aggressive, arrogant drivers who think they are good drivers but aren’t.

ANd since his Latin is so shit and his book reviewed so badly he should keep his head down about this sort of thing.

Most of them are quite stupid really. Double space after a period is personal preference but easy to set up in Word so not a massive issue. Comma after and intrigues me as it is either an erroneous reference to an Oxford comma or perhaps avoiding something like this "and, assuming all things are equal, we can proceed as planned" which he may not like for some reason.

Banning a set of perfectly acceptable words and setting down rules to refer to males using special archaic postnomials is nonsense. And as for using imperial units, no thank you beyond pints in a pub or miles on the road.

Ah well, perhaps if his mind is on these things he won’t have time to do anything more sinister

That said, perhaps it explains the people causing tailbacks on the roads. They look at the 40 sign, think its means 40kph, and drive around at 25mph...

I'm with you, @DdraigGoch.

@daisypond no, not at all. I just keep well back from said drivers in the knowledge that they tend to also have other issues with their driving such as deciding to turn at the last minute, indicators an afterthought.

Anyhow, he can fuck off to the US if he's so enamoured of imperial measurements.

Given that his banned word lists includes 'equal', presumably he finds their Declaration of Independence objectionable?

I'd forgotten JRM published a book. Has anyone looked in a copy to see how many of these rules he breaks?

I'd forgotten JRM published a book. Has anyone looked in a copy to see how many of these rules he breaks?

I don't know but I think it's fair to say it wasn't wasn't universally admired.

The Victorians is written (or, as Rees-Mogg confesses, dictated) in a plodding, laborious and barely readable style, completely lacking in humour, sophistication or polish as well as in every other literary quality. Here’s a sample: “Disraeli, as we know, was especially good at being rude and, although we have a persistent image of the Victorians as bound by rigid rules of decorum and politeness, their politicians could be appallingly rude in ways that would be ruled out of order today and Disraeli was especially the master of the jibe.” And so on, and on, and on, in one lame, banal, poorly structured sentence after another, for more than 450 pages.
New Statesman review

So breaking his own "and comma" rule there, but also so dull as to bore you to putting his book down and never picking it up again.

@DadDadDad

A Passage to India?

Would you be happy to see schools being required to teach imperial measurements instead of metric?