Mea Culpa: who does ‘her’ think she is?

John Rentoul rounds up some of the infelicities of expression in this week’s Independent

We added to the education secretary’s difficulties with a grammatical slip (PA)

In the editorial on Wednesday about the education secretary’s difficulties, we speculated that “Ms Keegan had forgotten which party has been in charge of education for the past 13 years … and indeed that it was her who ordered 150 schools to be closed or partially closed just before or, in the worst cases, after term started.” Who was it who ordered the schools to be closed or partially closed? She did. Not “her” did. So that should say “it was she who ordered…”

Thanks to Sue Alexander who pointed it out. That it came in the middle of a 62-word sentence may not have helped the writer keep track of the grammar.

In the same editorial, we commented: “There seems to be a quite widespread feeling in Britain that ‘nothing works anymore’.” As Ms Alexander also pointed out, “any more” is two words. The Americans increasingly squish them together, but in my mind and in British English, they are two distinct ideas and two distinct words.