LibFem Grammar

Just listen to these words of Tim Farron, President of the LibDems: Your average Tory minister, bless them, works hard in their department and is rarely seen anywhere near their constituency. 

The statement itself is of course utter bollocks - a black lie - but the words are grammatical bollocks too.  Your average Tory minister - singular - bless them - plural - works hard - singular - in their department - plural - and is rarely seen - singular - anywhere near their - plural - constituency - singular.

Now, whatever you may think of Tim Farron's politics or intellect, like me you probably do not believe that he is this ignorant of the rules of grammar.   So why does he do it?  He does it in a desperate attempt to avoid upsetting the women's lib fraternity by saying  his or him, saying them and their instead even though the singular subjects at that point require singular personal pronouns and possessive adjectives.  He could of course have avoided the problem by saying his or her or, much better, by starting and staying in the plural thus: Average Tory ministers, bless them, work hard in their departments and are ... etc. But getting your words right takes time and effort and for him it was clearly far more important to use that time and effort to get right the LibFem Speak grammar rather than the English grammar.

Farron is not the only one who routinely mangles our grammar for this reason; the habit has become rampant at all levels of society and in all walks of life. But nowhere is it more rampant than on the centre-left of politics, which is particularly worrying because it indicates an obsession with form rather than substance and with dogma and political correctness rather than clarity, practicality and intellectual honesty.  In short, it is a symptom of the disease that is eating away at the governance of Britain.