And finally… Gove’s grammar

The Lord Chancellor Michael Gove has been accused of patronising civil servants after he issued them with a list of grammar rules to be applied in departmental correspondence – despite breaking at least one of these rules himself.

He told officials they must not start a sentence with the word “however”.

But the Independent on Sunday found that Mr Gove did this himself in articles for The Times where he was formerly a journalist.

In an article from 2008 on the phenomenon of “next-day delivery”, he stated: “However, I was nudged out of my reverie by the reminder that it was indeed possible to send something through the post on Tuesday and be sure it arrived on Wednesday – if you use ‘special delivery’.”

A Whitehall source said: “It’s slightly patronising.

“It does feel like the sort of thing someone would do when they have too much time on their hands.”

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