That nice Tristram Hunt, the meteorologist’s son turned MP, was on Newsnight Review and used the word mitigate.
That nice Tristram Hunt, the meteorologist’s son turned MP, was on Newsnight Review and used the word mitigate. ‘You mean militate,’ cut in Germaine Greer. And he did.
We all commit malapropisms. The brain fumbles for a ready-made phrase and picks up the wrong one. On the same programme the clever Phillip Blond kept using phenomena as a singular, and I thought, with a little surprise, that he must know no better. But later on, after Dr Greer’s schoolmarmish intervention, he managed a phenomenon or two without strain.
I am not familiar with the speech patterns of Eric Pickles, the new Secretary of State for Communities, whatever those are, but on Any Questions last week he repeatedly said BT when he meant BP.
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