Colonel SPAG

Despondent subscriber highlighting the rise of solecisms and the decline in standards of the once dependable Daily Telegraph

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Merely dipping in and out of The Daily @Telegraph over the last year or so has thrown up hundreds of spelling, punctuation, grammar, graphic and presentational errors, not to mention stylistic faults and typos.

These sloppy editors shall be held to account.

Submissions welcome.

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

@BBCNews @MaiDaviesNews Thank you for correcting the article but now the caption is wrong @BBCNews @MaiDaviesNews

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

@BBCNews Making it up as you go along! Please, please BBC just get the most basic English styles correct.

She is called Lady Beckham, not “Lady Victoria”. She is not an aristocrat, daughter of an earl (like Lady Mary in Dowton).

Same goes for Lady Starmer.

SO SIMPLE

@MaiDaviesNews

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

PLEASE @BBCNews get basic style right.

She is called Lady Blair, not “Lady Cherie Blair” (which would imply she’s an aristocrat like Lady Mary Crowley in Downton Abbey).

Don’t wreck a precise system.

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear @kate_whannel and @BBCNews,

PLEASE, please, PLEASE can you stick to the most basic English styles?

It’s so sad to see a broadcaster once a bastion of standards getting this wrong.

They are called Lord Dannat and Lord Evans, NOT “Lord Richard Dannat” etc. PLEASE!

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Ahem @seanjcoughlan

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear @seanjcoughlan, this is incorrect - he would become Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. See Archie Mountbatten-Windsor for reference.

As royal correspondent you should probably know this.

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

@BBCNews She was an amazing woman and a great conservationist and naturalist. She was not an animal rights campaigner.

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

@BBCBreaking She was an amazing woman but NOT an animal rights activist. She was a conservationist. They are extremely different things. Please report responsibly @BBCNews

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

@mark_e_f @sistoney67 @BBCBreakfast Exactly. Not the end of the world but of all news organisations the BBC should know better

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear @seanjcoughlan, what hope do other journalists have Jr even the BBC’s royal correspondent can’t get titles and styles right?

It is Lord Foster, NOT Lord Norman Foster. Lord (Norman) Foster is acceptable if really necessary.

Ditto for Lord Janvrin.

Please get this right!

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear @ashnagesh,

Brilliant and important article on Lady Brittan, thank you.

However, PLEASE get the style correct. She is Lady Brittan, or, if you must, Lady (Diana) Brittan, but NOT, ever, Lady Diana Brittan.

That is for daughters of earls etc., like Lady Diana Spencer.

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

18.7.23

So nice you wrote it twice @Telegraph

#shoddy

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

17.7.23

Editor not at work that day @Telegraph?

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

16.7.23

FEWER, @Telegraph, FEWER

Dearie me

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear @ImogenJames00

I don’t think @tom_watson of all people would want to be mistaken for the younger son of a duke or a marquess. He is Lord Watson, not Lord Tom Watson.

Elementary, and the BBC should get this right.

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear Lord @ellsviolet, I know the whole world is slowly being homogenised and Americanised but please can we stick to English English on the BBC for a while longer?

@BBCNews

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

Dear @GazTheJourno,

Please check your work before publishing it.

He is Sir Michael, not Mr, Caine.

Standards in journalism matter and if we can’t rely on @Telegraph then upon whom can we?

[Colonel SPAG @ColonelSpag]

12.7.23

What is dying “on instantly”, @Telegraph?