Mea Culpa: Facing up to royal mortality

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”.

Ticked off: We used “uptick” three times in the past week, a computer search tells me. I wouldn’t say it is absolutely forbidden, although for the sake of simplicity and to be on the safe side, it is on my Banned List. I think it has a specific meaning, especially among traders who watch graphs: a sudden small rise in price or volume that may be significant.

We did not use it in that sense in our picture caption about the eclipse in North America on Monday: “Montreal has seen a big uptick in visitors looking to witness the astronomical event.” Nor in our sub-headline on our report of Dr Hilary Cass’s findings about NHS gender identity services for young people: “Report publishes findings after uptick in referrals to services.” Nor in our report on Friday on the battle for Kharkiv: “The city has faced multiple attacks daily for months but with a savage uptick in recent weeks.”

In each case, we simply used it as an alternative to “increase”; and in each case, “increase” would have been less distracting.

Bolted on: Also on Friday, in our live reporting of the war in Ukraine, we briefly headlined our coverage: “Kyiv power plant destroyed as UK ‘Dragonfire’ laser could take on Putin’s drones.” Thanks to Paul Edwards for pointing out that this specialised use of the word “as” is peculiar to headline-writers. It is a way of bolting two separate but related stories together if they are happening at roughly the same time. He suggested that we could have used “but” instead because the laser is an anti-drone weapon designed to stop attacks similar to that on the power plant.

Not gender neutral: On Wednesday in our “On this Day” feature, we said that it was the day in 1955 on which Ruth Ellis was “the last person to be executed in the UK”. Philip Talbot wrote to say that many readers will know that she was the last woman to be hanged, and that men continued to be hanged for another nine years.

Rdcd-vwl rbrnd: We reported one of my favourite news stories on Wednesday thus: “‘Corporate bullying’ in the media is taking place against Abrdn, according to a boss at the firm, after its heavily criticised vowel-free rebrand.” As Roger Thetford reminded us, “A” is a vowel. We could have called it an “e-free” or a “reduced-vowel” rebrand.

Accidental nudity: On our fashion pages, we briefly said: “The mini hem comes up very short (bare in mind our tester is 6ft), but it’s still wearable.” We changed it to “bear in mind” because the phrase means “hold or carry in mind”. Nothing to do with the dress being so short that it is barely there.