Mea Culpa: Facing up to royal mortality

Questions of language and style in last week’s Independent, reviewed by John Rentoul

Queen Elizabeth greets Liz Truss after she was elected leader of the Conservative Party (Getty)

We reported on Tuesday the release of some material from Liz Truss’s forthcoming book, relating to her meeting with the Queen “just two days before the monarch’s death”. We paraphrased the former prime minister as writing “that there was no suggestion the Queen might be about to pass away”.

Our usual style is “die” because “pass away” seems like a euphemism that patronises the reader, as if they need to be protected from the awful truth. Given that we had just referred to the monarch’s “death”, this seemed inconsistent as well as unnecessary.

Steady stealing: In a report on Wednesday of a proposed law to protect shop workers from threats of violence, we said: “Repeat offenders could also be forced to wear an electronic tag, as could consistent shoplifters.” Thanks to Linda Beeley, who thought this implied that inconsistent shoplifters might escape tagging, and that thieves could get round the law by stealing different things every time. We meant “persistent”.