I thought I'd share this little gem from today's Grauniad. Just about hits the mark even for 'a far left Commie' like me! It's by Jonathan Freeland.
When I was a young child I had a tantrum at a motorway cafe. My parents ordered for everyone, selecting baked beans on toast for me. I stamped my foot and demanded I choose for myself. I then proceeded to read the entire menu, holding up everyone, including an increasingly impatient waitress. Finally, I announced my choice: I would have baked beans on toast.
The memory of that episode returned to me while watching Theresa May give her big Brexit speech at Mansion House today. The speech was praised in some quarters for being serious and, by the standards of her government, pretty detailed. The main takeaway was that the prime minister had finally bidden farewell to “cakeism”, admitting that we couldn’t both leave the single market and have unchanged access to it. “Life is going to be different,” she warned.
But the speech also suggested that Brexit could end up rather like my strop at Little Chef. We would put ourselves and the rest of Europe through a great ordeal, only to end up with an arrangement rather like the one we could have had anyway, all for the sake of feeling in control. Except that, in this case, the end result would be both inferior to, and much more costly than, the dish originally on offer.
I'm still hiding under the table, because we was told if we vote leave,
1. WW3 could begin
2. House prices would drop by 20%
3. Emergency immediate Brexit tax
4. Each house hold having to find £4300 per year extra
5.820 000 jobs would go
Still, bus slogans are far more serious obviously. Especially when everyone else could read it as a "suggestion", not a promise.
I'd love to see it happen in reality.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/poli...-a3579676.html
There is no quandary. I've provided evidence to support my view and you haven't.
The lobby group is called the National Rifle Association. Its magazine is called the National Rifleman.
Proper nouns because they are names of organisations. I repeat, there is no organisation, national or otherwise, of illiterates that Serious was referring to.
Don't often come across someone arrogant enough to argue with a dictionary, but there you are.
Arrogance sounds like a bit of self-description, my friend. Instead of answering my construction, you changed the sentence to fit with your interpretation. Suppose the sentence ran:
A number of national riflemen awaited the Senator's arrival outside Congress?
Dictionaries are subject to interpretation. They are not tablets written in stone.
Can I point out that I never claimed to be the ultimate authority? Actually, I'm quite laidback about it. Like I said, 'does the writer successfully communicate her meaning' is paramount.
[QUOTE=sidders;38817484]Arrogance sounds like a bit of self-description, my friend. Instead of answering my construction, you changed the sentence to fit with your interpretation. Suppose the sentence ran:
A number of national riflemen awaited the Senator's arrival outside Congress?
Dictionaries are subject to interpretation. They are not tablets written in stone.
Can I point out that I never claimed to be the ultimate authority? Actually, I'm quite laidback about it. Like I said, 'does the writer successfully communicate her meaning' is paramount.[/QUOTE
I have to agree, you are NOT the ultimate authority.