Epsom matters, English not so much

By Duncan Wilson

I see the odd missed apostrophe about town, the anger flares up, but then I move on. Sure, I'm a pedant who avoids eating at places who can't spell or punctuate correctly on their menus, but I don't let it ruin my day.

Then I took a look at this letter a colleague passed to me earlier and really scratched my head. See, this letter came from Hon John Banks. He's the MP for the whole of Epsom in Auckland, leading me to presume this letter went out to the whole of Epsom in Auckland. At least, it's signed by him, though I doubt he had very much to do with its typing. Or proof-reading, for that matter.

See, the letter contains not one, but two very basic English errors. Missing words, in fact.

If the MP is stuck for decent proof readers, I'm sure there's a wealth of decent schools in the area who would be willing to help out. Probably not for youth rates, though, sadly.