UNITED KINGDOM
The new Leader of the United Kingdom House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured) has issued a barrage of style guides to the Public Servants under his control, including that all non-titled males be called esquire in correspondence and placing a ban on the use of metric measurements.
His new list of rules also includes banned words and phrases such as ‘hopefully’, ‘very’, ‘due to’ and ‘equal’, as well as ‘yourself’, ‘ongoing’ and ‘unacceptable’.
Workers are also banned from using ‘lot’, ‘got’ and ‘I am pleased to learn’.
The list was sent out shortly after Mr Rees-Mogg’s appointment, with other directions including using a double space after full stops, and no comma after the word ‘and’.
He has also deemed the phrase ‘no longer fit for purpose’ as no longer fit for purpose.
Journalists were quick to check Hansard to find Mr Rees-Mogg had used the words on his banned list 1,189 times since he entered the House of Commons as a backbencher.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who as a backbencher was often described as the ‘Minister for the 18th Century’, has also advised staff to always use imperial measurements, most of which had been phased out in the UK from the mid-1960s onwards.
He is the Chair of the European Research Group, a group of hard-line Conservative Party advocates of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit).
Another new Minister has also issued edits to his Public Servants. Secretary for Transport, Grant Shapps wants submissions to him to be no longer than two pages “with no exceptions and no annexes”.
London, 30 July, 2019
