Mea Culpa: The bigamous prime minister and the lightly poached lining of cloud

In an article about Meghan and Harry possibly moving to Portugal – I admit I had not been keeping up – we conjured up a world in which the British prime minister has two wives, one of them being David Lammy, and clouds come with side helpings. The article went on to say: “If increasingly frequent appearances from the Sussexes are a possible silver lining in the wake of Trump’s return to the White House, it should be served with a side of caution.” The mental image of lightly poached lining of cloud being served with green caution tossed in butter was so delightful we left it as it was. Going on about ongoing: In our World News in Brief on Friday a headline read: “South Africa close Mozambique border amid ongoing violence.” First, South Africa is a country. What we meant was: “South Africa closes Mozambique border after protests turn violent.” Double back: In an article about a woman who had survived domestic abuse, an ambiguous turn of words risked distracting the reader. Building a lean-to: In an article about Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England, supporting our appeal to build refuges for women fleeing domestic abuse, we said she “made her intervention as she leant her support to The Independent’s Brick by Brick campaign”.