using the word. Jeremy Hunt told us how his plans would turbocharge the economy almost as often as he
reminded us he had been an entrepreneur.
Anyway, Jess Phillips, the Labour MP, has petitioned the court to have it added to the Banned List. By the
authority vested in me, and using the special fast-track procedure, this has now been done.
We would have fallen foul of this ruling last week, when we said that a possible cut in stamp duty might
“turbo-charge the housing market”. Most of the times we used the word, however, was when we were
quoting Boris Johnson, and I am afraid my writ does not run as far as 10 Downing Street.
However, in a ballet review we also praised Svetlana Zakharova’s performance in the Bolshoi’s Spartacus as
Crassus’s mistress Aegina, “a turbo-charged vamp who is all plots and slinking poses”. I quite like that, and
am prepared to make an exception for it, but we should lose the hyphen.
Access denied: We had this headline on a report about football: “Sixfold increase in players accessing
mental health aid.” Access as a verb is a weak word. “Receiving” would have been better, or “treated for
mental health problems”. At least we didn’t call it a 500 per cent increase, the kind of sensationalised
statistic of which we have occasionally been guilty in the past.
Irregular: In our reporting of the Tour de France, we commented on the storms that disrupted it: “The
extremes of 40 degree heat and snowstorms are going to interrupt this race more regularly as the climate
crisis deepens.” We meant more frequently, or more often: extreme weather of this kind does not tend to
occur at predictable intervals.
Give it a rest(aurant): In a travel article about Malta, we wrote about “the eatery-encrusted streets of St
Julian’s”. I am all for a bit of variety of vocabulary, but, after that one, I am off to the drinkery.