In a moment of madness in the late 80's the Tories decided to issue an edict proclaiming that schools were no longer to mark children's work as incorrect if they made spelling errors. Then, since and now I was appalled at the stupidity of that decision and of the decision subsequently not to revoke it. The result of that decision can be seen daily across the country now with school leavers barely able to write coherent sentences. Some, thanks to cultural changes have a fair grip of text language and shortcuts which is ok in its arena but most have a basic ability to spell that most 10 year olds would have been thoroughly ashamed of 20 years ago.

On the face of it many people argue that it doesn't really matter how something is spelt as long as one can understand the meaning a person is trying to convey. Which might hold to a point. Try the following sentence.

"Where my trousers lie I feel more comfortable." would suggest that someone is happy spending time in a place that their clothing belongs. I.e. home. Introduce two seemingly insignificant spelling errors "Wear my trousers lye I feel more comfortable." Means something entirely different. Now we are led to believe that someone is happier wearing trousers that have been dyed using a strong caustic alkaline solution of potassium salts.

Not the greatest example but it makes the point. At what point does the message become lost due to a spelling error / errors. Why take the risk of allowing some errors and not others. What's WRONG with spelling it all right?

Spellcheckers (whilst personally I loath them) can be useful only if the correct spelling is noted by the writer for future accuracy. There is little or no point having someone else do you spelling for you unless you accept the mistake and learn from it.

This is an old story but I found it again recently and I must admit it made me smile. Ken Hulme, the mouthpiece for SMAG has been inconvenienced! Shock horror. While I wouldn't condone the rather childish actions of whoever has sent a couple of taxis to Ken's home and ordered a skip that wasn't required, I am absoloutely astounded that the police are taking the matter "very seriously". They been twice and have launched an investigation!

I know of people who have to live in homes that are rather more inconvenienced than this on a daily basis. People in council properties who have drug dealing neighbours who let large fireworks off out of their windows, who leave their rubbish strewn across landings, who are sick in carrier bags which they then throw out of their front doors, who scream and shout abouse at full volume at 1am, 3am, 5am, who honk car horns at all hours, who bang on peoples doors at 4am and invariably the police cannot attend as it is not a priority. The council take NO action because there is no police record of the incidents. Yet a man who receives weekly coverage in the press gets a police investigation over a couple of childish pranks. Work that out.