British Prime minister - Spelling mistakes (Mark II)

Robin Michael   Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:34 am GMT
The British Prime minister wrote a personal letter of condolences to the mother of a soldier killed in Afganistan. The letter was written in black felt tip pen and contained a number of spelling mistakes. The letter was published on the front page of 'The Sun'.

'The Sun' is brought to you by the same man who supplies you with 'Fox News'.


Robin Michael Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:28 am GMT

Sorry - Prime Minister
Teagle   Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:06 am GMT
Do you really think nobody's going to spoil it this time around? It's only a matter of time before the Butt Fuck guy finds this thread... Why do you bother?
Robin Michael   Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:03 pm GMT
Why does Butt Fuck bother?

I am not entirely bothered anyway. I quite enjoy just going on Antimoon and writing something. I watch television; I read books, not entirely true. I watch different television programs and I overhear conversations, and I think: that is an interesting word or that would be a suitable topic for Antimoon.

Why does Damian bother? Damian regularly writes little articles for Antimoon.

It is like going for a walk. It having some exercise. I am doing a Creative Writing course and one of the things that has been suggested to us; is that we do some writing every day. Well, I think that my writing ability has improved since I started regularly writing on Antimoon.

Do you think Butt Fucks ability has improved? Or do you think that he is doing the same thing, over and over again?

I know the Antimoon Forum is primarily intended for people who are Learning English as a Second Language. I know that I was quite harsh in my criticism of Xie, and since I criticised him, he has not really contributed to Antimoon. That was not really my intention. Although I can be cantankerous and difficult, and perhaps too critical, my intention was to help him with his English.

I find far from being less motivated, I am more motivated!
Robin Michael   Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:05 pm GMT
Do you just think that I want to be the 'Cock of the North'?
threadspoiler   Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:31 pm GMT
<<Do you really think nobody's going to spoil it this time around?>>

OK here's my try:

Maybe it's time for English spelling reform? Maybe the Prime Minister will make spelling reform a priority, if he's reelected to another term in offfice? Maybe this could be a winning campaign issue in the upcoming elections?
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:54 pm GMT
The overblown publicity being given to this unfortunate handwritten letter personally sent by Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, to the mother of a young soldier who was killed in Afghanistan really is ridiculous.

I'm no fan of Gordon Brown by any stretch of the imagination, neither do I support his political party, but in this particuilar case he has my profound sympathy.

Leaving aside his policies and his record in Government - for one thing he was never elected to the post of Prime Minister, he inherited it from Tony Blair who typically jumped ship before his time ran out when it suited him! - Brown really is a man of honour and a decent one all said and done, and he has made a point of personally sending handwritten letters to the relatives of every single British serviceman who is killed on active duty in all areas of conflict, currently that horrid, hot and dusty hellhole of a desert wasteland, far away from the pleasantly cool, lush green countryside of Britain.

As Prime Minister he is a very busy man and has about as hectic a time schedule as it's possible for any individual to get...the pressures on him are intense - so it's to his credit that he can spare time to write personally to the bereaved to express his genuine sorrow and regret to the families.

It must be remembered that Gordon Brown is totally blind in one eye, and his other eye only has about 65% of normal vision ability, so to all intents and purposes he is physically disabled. As a result his handwriting generally is not as good as that of the average person of his level of eduation, and he is a very well educated man.....it's not easy for him to clearly see what he has written, and those alleged spelling "errors" were not really errors anyway - it was his bad handwriting at fault.

Admittedly he did get the name of the deceased young soldier wrong, which is what upset his mother the most, and it could be said that it may have been a good idea for Mr Brown to have had his letter examined by another person before it was sent, but it wasn't, so that's that....unfortunate as I say.

However, I deplore all the politically motivated censure of the Prime Minister over this particular issue.....led by about the most luridly unsavoury, scurrilous and obscene load of sink estate rubbish that is "The Sun" "newspaper"...this word is used in its loosest term...and I think it tells us something about the mother who approached "The Sun" almost as soon as she received this letter from poor old Mr Brown. It's true that she is a grieving mother, and we must extend sympathy to her and feel her pain in her sad loss of a son, but in my opinion she personally doesn't come out of all this with any real honour and decency at all, very little in fact.

Britain really does have certain sections of its popular press which belong to the sewers and the gutters and they have no association with actual truth and decency anyway, and this bloody awful load of crapito "The Sun" leads the field in this respect....by a very long head! Yuk!

I feel now that I need a shower and an aerosol air freshener.....
--   Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:08 pm GMT
<<The British Prime minister wrote a personal letter of condolences to the mother of a soldier killed in Afganistan. The letter was written in black felt tip pen and contained a number of spelling mistakes. The letter was published on the front page of 'The Sun'.>>

If it's a personal letter, why did it get published? This is just bad journalism!

Who is interested in the spelling errors of a Prime minister?

<< I watch television; >>

I recomment you to stop watching television, it's crying nonsense! You'll get sick of it sooner or later. (I stopped watching television in the year 2000.)

<<Why does Damian bother? Damian regularly writes little articles for Antimoon.>>

Damians articles do have a point and a very high niveau!

<<It is like going for a walk. It having some exercise. I am doing a Creative Writing course and one of the things that has been suggested to us; is that we do some writing every day.>>

Forget about the Creative Writing course. You just waste your time and money there. Doing some writing every day is quite good, but need it be in Antimoon? You can write something down on a sheet of paper, just for you and nobody else. If you will reread it a couple of days later, you might find mistakes or a better writing style by yourself.

Sorry, I'm no native speaker, but the semicolon in your sentence is some kind of optical and linguistical violation.

If I would set commata according to the classical German orthography, I would render your sentence like that:

I am doing a Creative Writing course, and one of the things, that has been suggested to us, is, that we do some writing every day.

In English, if there's no comma after 'things', I also wouldn't set a comma or semicolon after 'to us'. If you read your sentence, you don't expect a punctuation mark and stumble over the unexpected semicolon. The semicolon is too strong a separator, especially if you sentence lack any comma, which is somewhat weeker.

'that has been suggested to us' is a relative clause more precisely
describing the word 'things'. In classical German orthogarphy the german equivalent would be enclosed with commata because of it being a relative clause. But English is not German, so things might be different.

In English, you are more likely to drop commata, but you should do it in an intelligent way.
yeltsin   Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:34 pm GMT
Why do people in Europe get so worked up over dead soldiers? Seriously, it's a fucking war, people get killed! The double arrogance of the West:
1) That they can invade any country they want.
Well, it's bad but understandable. All powers have been doing this since the beginning of time. But...
2) That they can do it without any of their soldiers getting killed.
This is a rather new concept. They think they are so superior that they can go to war for free! They are obsessed with their own soldiers' lives to the point that they can't act freely. Their technological superiority is rendered mute by their obsession with their own saftey. ALso, they consider the Afghans to be subhuman. For example, when an Afghan soldier killed 5 British soldiers, there was public outcry. When NATO troops bombed to death 7 Afghan allies there was barely so much as a mention. Imagine if the Afghan public got as worked up over their troop deaths as the Europeans do?
Guest   Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:58 pm GMT
Afghan public DOES get worked up over their people deaths, they just don't lacrimate about it on TV, they silently join the Taliban instead.
@Damian   Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:00 pm GMT
<The overblown publicity...really is ridiculous.>

Then why contribute to it?

<I'm no fan of Gordon Brown by any stretch of the imagination, neither do I support his political party, but in this particuilar case he has my profound sympathy. >

Why the "but"? Can we only sympathise with those we support?

<Brown really is a man of honour and a decent one all said and done>

Where is your evidence for that?

<As Prime Minister he is a very busy man and has about as hectic a time schedule as it's possible for any individual to get...the pressures on him are intense - so it's to his credit that he can spare time to write personally to the bereaved>

What makes you think he does it in his spare time? It's part of his job.

<to express his genuine sorrow and regret to the families>

"Genuine sorrow." Are you sure about that? You would equate the feelings of the PM with the feelings of members of the affected families?

<It must be remembered that Gordon Brown is totally blind in one eye...As a result his handwriting generally is not as good as that of the average person of his level of eduation>

Direct us to the "very well educated person" = "good handwriting" data.

<...those alleged spelling "errors" were not really errors anyway - it was his bad handwriting at fault....Admittedly he did get the name of the deceased young soldier wrong>

It wasn't an "error", but he "got the name wrong"?

<and I think it tells us something about the mother who approached "The Sun" almost as soon as she received this letter>

What would that "something" be, Damian?
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:49 pm GMT
To the last poster - do you have any idea what sort of daily rag "The Sun" actually is or what sort of people actually "read" it? If so, then you can work out just what that "something" is, you dolt!
Caspian   Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:20 am GMT
I don't think people read 'The Sun'. I think the kind of people who buy it find it challenging enough looking at the pictures.

I agree with you here, Damian. Brown is a soft, left-wing twat who seems to be doing his best to ruin the country. He is under no obligation to send letters to the families of people who have been blown to pieces as a result of signing up to the army. He does it anyway, and can't be criticized for that. It was ridiculous that the phone call was recorded - and also illegal. He was rather baffled, I think, about how his act of goodwill was received.

<< Direct us to the "very well educated person" = "good handwriting" data. >>

That's not what he said, is it?
@Caspian   Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:49 pm GMT
<That's not what he said, is it?>

By implication, yes:

<<As a result his handwriting generally is not as good as that of the average person of his level of eduation, and he is a very well educated man>>
@Damian   Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:56 pm GMT
<To the last poster - do you have any idea what sort of daily rag "The Sun" actually is or what sort of people actually "read" it? If so, then you can work out just what that "something" is, you dolt!>

Spell it out, Damian. You said:

<I think it tells us something about the mother who approached "The Sun" almost as soon as she received this letter from poor old Mr Brown.>

So, what does it tell us about the mother of the dead soldier?
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:13 pm GMT
***So, what does it tell us about the mother of the dead soldier?***

Well, if you want me to be candid....quite a lot, really. I realise I have to extend my sincere sympathy to this woman and I really do.....she lost a precious 20 years old son in that far away country in the struggle against an unscrupulous, insidiously nasty group of people calling themselves the Taliban, but in the opinion of very many decent people in the UK she lost a good deal of the moral high ground when she contacted The Sun, of all papers, in order to offload her alleged disgust with the way Gordon Brown had written that well meaning letter, especially over the fact that he had spelled her son's name incorrectly and his spelling of some other words appeared to be incorrect as well - not that you could really tell from the scrawl that passes for the Prime Minister's handwriting, much of which may well be due to his very poor eyesight. It's true that he could have had it checked out by one of his minions before it was posted to this mother.

The following link clearly indicates the type of daily paper The Sun is.....it calls itself a "newspaper"...it even has "News" in its website caption, which really has to be a joke. Look at this website and judge for yourself the type of "readers" it is aimed at, this poor dead lad's mother obviously being one of them. Admittedly she appeared to be quite well spoken and articulate in all her TV interviews....and don't know which part of England she comes from as, being a Scot, I didn't recognise the accent but to my mind she just "looked" like your typical Sun "reader". I really must not be disrespectful to her bearing in mind the very sad circumstances she is in, but she really would look a lot more presentable if she spent quite some time with a dental surgeon and then at a hairdressing salon, but she may well not have the readies for all that kind of thing....unless of course The Sun comes up with....no, I really musn't go there......that really would be mean of me.

The Sun....I say "reader" as there is next to nothing of any consequence to "read" in that rag anyway....judge for yourself if you are not familiar with it:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/