Mea Culpa: Is Boris Johnson a shopping trolley or a ship?

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

Full speed ahead, captain (EPA)

The prime minister compared himself to a shopping trolley with a wonky wheel when he was trying to decide whether to support Remain or Leave in the EU referendum. The analogy has been taken up enthusiastically by Dominic Cummings, his former adviser, as we wrote: “We are all used to the chaos, by now; the broken supermarket trolley, as Cummings likes to call Boris Johnson, careening from one side of the aisle to the other, agreeing with whoever he last smashed into.”

The usual word is “careering”, from “career”, originally a wheeled vehicle from the Latin carrus (the same word that gave us carriage), which came to mean a road or racecourse and thence the course of someone’s life. The use of “careening” to mean the same thing is “mainly North American”, according to the Oxford dictionary.

This is a meaning acquired by the confusion of similar-sounding words. “Careening” used to mean turning a boat on its side to clean it (from Latin carina, keel), but it is not a word most of us often need, and if we did we would probably say, “turning a boat on its side to clean it”. But if we mean “move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way”, as Roger Thetford pointed out, we should stick with “careering”.

Long arm of the law: The caption on one of our Pictures of the Day illustrated the importance of word order: “Abortion supporters and protesters gather outside the US Supreme Court as the High Court hears arguments in two challenges to a Texas law that bans most abortions in Washington DC.” That made it sound as if Texas state law applies in Washington DC. What we meant to say was: “Abortion supporters and protesters gather outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC…”

New normal: One of our comment writers said the government “favours quick political gains over scientific competency” in dealing with coronavirus. The usual word is “competence”. Similarly, we said the Indian government’s promotion of tourism in Kashmir “gives a facade of normalcy”. Language evolves, and if enough people prefer “–cy” endings, that is what we will end up with. In the meantime, however, conservative styles lend authority, so we should use “normality”.

Four words of nothing: We use “when it comes to” too often. It is a weak phrase that often links two parts of a sentence that don’t quite join. It is almost always a sign that the sentence needs to be rewritten. In an article about Jes Staley standing down as boss of Barclays, for example, we said: “Whistleblowers are essential when it comes to shining a light on the sort of problems that seem endemic to banking.” I think something like this would have been stronger: “Whistleblowers are essential – they are needed to shine a light on the sort of problems that seem endemic to banking.”

But it is worse to start a sentence with the phrase. “When it comes to luxury skincare, Chanel is one of the best brands to indulge in,” we said last week. That means the reader starts with four words of nothing before getting to the subject. “Chanel is one of the best brands in luxury skincare,” we could have said, and done our indulging in the next sentence.