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).

I suspect other "Leaders of the House" never issued style guides. That alone makes JRM's declarations pure twattery.

I always put 2 spaces after full stop. Mandating it for others is pure twattery imho. If I was an MP I would very pointedly use metric units for now on. I do quite love the Guardian journalist who found this info about JRM's own utterances in HoC. The list of banned words comes from a local Bristol paper.

* I'm more concerned that JRM (the odious little ) doesn't want "equal" used. That speaks volumes to me*

Yes - wtf is his problem with the word 'equal'?

@notangelinajolie and anyone else who likes his "geeky, eloquent" ways, I'd advise you to check out his voting record and see if you still find him likeable.

www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24926/jacob_rees-mogg/north_east_somerset/votes

He is a complete knob, how the hell have we got to the situation where these wankers are in charge.

So cross, think the technical term is “triggered” aaagh!!

Geeky?

Haven't read the whole thread yet so this may have been answered. When did the double space after a full stop become obsolete? This is obviously why on some apps if I do a double space I lose my capital letter!

A style guide is a good thing. Makes all written communication from the same place consistent.

Only issue is JRM style guide seems to be from 1950; as far as I'm aware it's now 2019.

Whilst it's not at all odd to include in a style guide a list of words to be use in place of other words (especially for places implementing plain English), his list of 'banned words' is inexplicable.

Speaking of plain English, I'd put money on JRM being totally set against it.

To me it just shows he’s unable to adapt to the modern world and can’t cope. And if you can’t relate to the time you live in you most likely can’t cope with governing it.

The only good thing about BJ being PM is that it's not JRM.

This is such a non news story. All Ministers give out their preferences - indeed their private office probably badgered them into doing it within the first 5 minutes!

I work for a big central gov Department and all of our Ministers have done this - shock horror - even the Labour ones.

Two spaces here. Look. You could park a bus in there.😁

To answer your question Rain (about Hansard) if it's a prepared speech then his private office gives Hansard a written copy. If he speaks 'off the cuff' in a debate then Hansard have to take it down verbatim.

Of course the written copy is only helpful if you have a Minister that actually reads the speech he's been given ....

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

I was taught to do so as a trainee lawyer back in 1997. And still do it!

But it's totally unnecessary. Word processing means that the words and sentences are spaced correctly without two spaces. I remove double spaces from any documents I review, because it's not the right way to do it and hasn't been for many years.

Two spaces after a full stop started to go in the 1950s, at least in journalism. But it’s really the development of computer-based proportional font as opposed to a manual typewriter-based monospace font that has made the two spaces generally redundant. You can set it up in Word to have two spaces if you want but an editor in many/most fields would remove them.

The Oxford comma is neither right nor wrong. It's just a matter of preference. I tend to use it but have no problem with writing which omits it.

What I do have a problem with is JRM trying to ban the Oxford comma, which precedes the word "and", and instead banning subordinate clauses which can follow the word "and".

On the double space issue, we've had to use 2 spaces after the full stop in submissions and public correspondence for the past 20 years. So that part of JRM's style guide would be no different for us.

Also, Mogg hasn't banned the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma goes before the word 'and'.

Instead he's banned people from putting a comma after 'and', I believe. Which means he objects to subclauses for some reason.

Xpost with vegan!

@notangelinajolie

It's the geek in him I think. It's not what he says but the way he says it. I think he has a wonderfully eloquent way with words. I like that he cuts to the chase and stands by his convictions. Looking forward to him wiping the floor with John Bercow.

His vile homophobic convictions you mean?

I love how wound up people are getting about two spaces. Only on MN I think I'm going to start using three. There, that's better. Then I might go and clean the loo with a brush, arrange some twigs in a vase, and wash my knickers with some tea towels.

Using two spaces has become unpopular in part because it wastes paper.

But apparently two spaces is slightly smoother to read.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/one-space-or-two-spaces-after-a-full-stop-scientists-have-finally-found-the-answer-a8337646.html

It's not so much two spaces, or an 'Oxford' comma or not though is it, or even insisting on Imperial measurements when significant areas like science use metric units? It's the whole 'look at me pratting around when the country is facing serious issues' attitude which annoys many of us. Coupled with his wealthy, "I'm all right Jack" attitude.