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).

This comes from a man with a child named Sixtus. Obviously not a modern chap!

I always use two spaces after a stop.

It’s very ongoing.

I read about this on a different forum.

Apparently it has been around since at least 2009, so it is not something he has just done. There was also a suggestion it was a scam even then but it definitely looks like someone - not necessarily JRM has resurrected it

Because age discrimination exists. Lots of job applications try to be blind now and you have to try to eliminate identifying info. If you want to immediately mark yourself as older, double space away. No-one's stopping you.

Except that MS word auto corrects it. I’d reject anyone who didn’t do it.

Although thinking about it, with surnames it might be convention to always use one — Trevor Nunn wouldn't just be Trevor N without a full stop!

He is a ridiculous little turd.

I do agree though that “myself”, “yourself” and in the case of every police officer ever interviews “we would” should be banned.

It’s absolutely not wrong to remind a person to check their work, which it sounds as though Mr Rees-Mogg should’ve done.

"fullstops" ?

What should you use instead of “dear” in emails?

All the double spacers are being autocorrected here.

And agree - it's all a distraction. We're talking about this crap instead of his policies.

If I'm not supposed to use 'Dear' to start and email what am I supposed to do when a new customer contacts me starting with 'Dear Mrs Pink'? 'Hi Mr Customer' is too informal to start with.

I am genuinely disturbed that this anachronism has a place in government

You're not alone. To me he shows all the signs of someone comfortably out to lunch, and this latest offering just underlines it

As my late mum used to say "not someone you'd want to meet down a dark lane at night"

I used to work at the private members club for the Tories and they insisted on the use of 'Esq'. It old fashioned and stuffy, much like most of the members of the Tory party, so quite fitting really!

Nobody has used two spaces after a full stop since the invention of the electric typewriter. It’s archaic.

Not so, I am a senior medical secretary and would have failed my diploma and RSA exams if I had not put 2 spaces after a full stop (and, yes, the electric typewriter had long been invented then). I still do it. Anything less looks completely wrong to me. My business involves (amongst other tasks) typing letters and medicolegal reports and the two-space gap still stands in those.

Two spaces after a full stop may be normal but so are lots of idiotic archaic things that have no place in modern society. So I am not remotely surprised that this nasty idiot who still lives under the care of his childhood nanny and probably still asks her for spankings when he’s naughty uses two spaces.

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams Interesting. I didn’t know that. In my line of work, publishing-based, M.P.s and Rev. would also be errors, along with the two spaces. JRM is a national embarrassment. I bet he’s another one who has never actually had to apply for a job.

I think the line about Imperial Measurements is to counter an EU directive about metric measurements only to be used.

So if he's given a scientific document to read, he's going to ask it to be edited to have imperial measurements inserted?

Imagine you're a civil servant anticipating JRM being an awful new boss, then this is the first thing he does. Patronising awful shit.

He's a tosser and this is a deliberate distraction from discussion of the issues, aimed to appeal to the older Tory base.

I always use two spaces after a full stop, but auto-correct helpfully changes it to one space and I just don't care enough to sort that out.

And just in case this isn’t clear- modern word processing programs like Microsoft Word, any program you use for email, mumsnet comment forms, anything you do with a computer- automatically puts a slightly larger space after a full stop than it would between words without full stops. It’s such a stupid habit. It’s one thing to do it because you learned it that way and it’s hard to stop. It’s another thing to insist you’re right. You’re not. Much like JRM, you’re deluded and irritating.

I'm surprised about the "Dear " rule.

If I don't put "Dear" it's because we know each other well so I might put "Hi", it's an email chain so I'll start with something like "Thank you for your reply" or we email each other regularly so it will be ridiculously formal eg a colleague.

Should I have started my email to the deputy head with "To Mr X " instead? Sometimes it's not clear who an email address belongs to. "Dear Miss Y" is surely a good way for Miss Y to get the email if the address is owned by more than one person?

I can't imagine writing an email with CV and cover letter without a "Dear Mrs Z" sort of intro

An Oxford comma goes before an and not after- it’s useful; I like the blue one, the red one, and the red and blue one.

I didn’t even know people putting two spaces after a full stop was a thing - what’s the point? However I start emails ‘dear and I’m 30.

Ffs @Elision, it’s a bloody space! Get a grip.

The rule about imperial units is ridiculous. Should be both imo.

I went to school in the 80s and learnt metric but like most (many?) English people I will still use imperial units such as pint.

One space after a full stop at my workplace. Emails are usually started with Hi and then their name. No full stops for abbreviations eg CDs. The brand language and style changed about 10 years ago.