In an article written in 1946, George Orwell exhorted his readers to fight against bad English. One of the things he railed against was ‘pretentious diction’. So I wonder what he’d have thought of the spokeswoman of a water authority who told us today that they’d faced the challenge of dewatering a canal? Or emptying it, as we used to day. Draining it, even. Need I tell you that Word’s Spellcheck recognises ‘dewatering’?

If you’re a regular reader, you won’t be too surprised to hear that almost 50% of Pontevedran pedestrians hit by cars are on zebra crossings at the time. But I must admit I was surprised; I thought the percentage would be much higher.

The first anniversary of the Madrid bombings is not far off and the newspaper publishers have announced that they will all refrain from putting ‘morbid images’ on their front pages. I wonder why; such sensitivity is conspicuous by its absence on virtually every other day of the year.

Quote of the Day

All political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.
George Orwell, in the article cited above