Mea culpa: cross words
The IndependentWe got into a muddle reporting on former Tory MP Aidan Burley’s move to Reform UK, the Nigel Farage vehicle. Missing meaning “Woman abducted as a baby dies aged 30,” read the headline for an item in Wednesday’s Independent on the death of Abbie Humphries, who was kidnapped hours after her birth in 1994. I must admit, however, that earlier this week I was drawn in by the headline of an article in our London-centric sister publication, The Standard, about the capital’s “famous” Regency Cafe. Cut it out “Swinging cuts” made an unwelcome appearance this week in a report on the chancellor’s denial that the outcomes of her spending review would amount to austerity. Mr O’Hare asks whether Independent readers need this euphemism to protect them from a specific term such as “genitals”, “penis” or “testicles”.
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