We’re a fairly mellow lot at Farmers Weekly, but each of us has a few issues that get us ranting! Here is a selection from senior arable writer Andrew Blake…
Can anyone explain why TV and radio weather forecasters suffer so much verbal diarrhoea?
Why do they seem unable to utter the word “towards” without prefacing it with “as we head”?
Why do they insist on telling us that the rain will move “its way”?
And does anyone else regularly refer to the evening/morning “hours”?
Even the BBC shipping forecast, that last bastion of broadcasting brevity, occasionally comes under attack from one lady presenter who always adds a “the” before “wind”.
And while we’re on the subject, why do so many people (FW staff included) talk about “weather conditions”? The O & E dictionary defines weather as ‘atmospheric conditions’.
Another oft-seen nonsense, in my view, is “dose rate” – it’s either a dose or a rate.
And as for “quad-bike”! How daft can you get?
If you agree with Andrew, then you might enjoy his own blog Verbal Diarrhoea