Mea Culpa: terrible headline junked amid blushes

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

Anthony Albanese scrapped plans for a referendum on changing Australia’s head of state (AP)

We briefly had such a bad headline last week it should have been eligible for some kind of award: “Australia junks prioritising referendum on having separate head of state amid Queen’s death.” Of all the clanging uses of “amid”, that is one of the worst I have seen. The rest of the headline was dreadful too, junking a prioritising and referring to a “separate” head of state – presumably separate from that of the UK.

As we could assume that the reader was aware of the demise of the crown, the headline was changed to: “Australia scraps plan to vote on changing head of state.” Phew.

The Australian prime minister’s retreat from his plan for a referendum on becoming a republic also featured in another article with a suboptimal headline: “Queen’s death sparks new questions in ex-colonies.” It doesn’t feel right for a death to create a spark, which is a tired metaphor anyway. Why couldn’t it just “raise” new questions?