Scottish Parliament Official Report General Style – Edition 25 07/03/05

general 1 adviser [NOT advisor] A B C D E F G H I J K L M advisory committee - check the full name in “Councils, Committees and Boards”. Social N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Security Advisory Committee; the committee. The minister has set up a land A reform advisory committee . . . going from A to B advocate deputes A and E use accident and emergency instead aftercare Aarhus convention ageism BUT aging, agist accents—see “foreign words” ages: six-year-olds; nine-year-olds; 10-year- olds; seven to 10-year-olds; from the ages acquiesce in of five to 18; aged eight, nine, 14 and 16; acronyms—should, as a rule, be set out in full those aged 16 to 18; 16 to 19-year-olds; the first time. An acronym may be put in over-50s, under-fives; in their 30s and 40s em-dashes after the term has been put out agrimoney, agrimonetary (BUT agri- in full if it would help the reader to do so. environment) There are three groups of exceptions: aide/s-de-camp 1. those that have become words: aims and objectives: TRY one or the other, laser, radar, quango not both 2. those that are in a foreign language airport [lc] Sumburgh airport; Manchester and would probably not be recognised: international airport; Heathrow terminal 4 UNITA, SNCF, FIFA (However, UEFA should be out in full first time if the al-Qa’ida organisation is referred to, but we would all comers always say “the UEFA cup”) all of—TRY omitting “of”: all the civil servants 3. those that might not be as involved, not “all of” the civil servants recognisable any other way: all right ADSL LED allowance—welfare benefits [lc] AIDS LSD amen—we say amen to that AM/FM ME amendments—are lodged in and ANZAC MOT tabled in Westminster. They are not BBC MRSA “brought forward” (but they are moved and disposed of and agreed to) BSE NASA amok, run amok BCG NATO ampersand—in a company’s name, follow CD-ROM OBE (and other honours) Companies House (Marks and Spencer; CJD PVC B&Q) DNA QED ancillary [NOT ancilliary] DVD RAM and/or—is acceptable, if that’s really what they DOS ROM mean FTSE TARDIS annexe [n] part of a building; annex [n] part of a HIV TNT document; annex [vb] IBM VAT anti-Christ ISBN VHS anti-Semitic ISDN VIP antisocial ISSN YMCA anticipate—is often used when “expect” would ITV YWCA be more appropriate KGB any [sing] Does any of us have the right to complain?

apex [NOT APEX or Apex] act—Government of Wales Act 1998; the/an act. If referred to a lot in a short space of apostrophe on “s”—only plurals end with “s’“ time, call it “the 1988 act” and so on— for the possessive [ministers’ cars]. Where nicknames lead to confusion. [see “bills”] the “s” is part of the word, the possessive must be “s’s”. This is usually a problem Admiralty only with names: Prince of Wales’s Administration—follows the same rules as consent, St James’s park, Sir Roy Government Griffiths’s report, the princess’s car. United advance notice—TRY notice States is a plural, so: United States’ view. adverbs—in a decisive way = decisively

general 2 Also, Scottish Homes’ responsibilities. Aunt Sally, Sallies EXCEPTIONS: for goodness’ sake autumn statement [lc] unless the reference is to apostrophe—do not use in names of the document, which takes inverted organisations: National Farmers Union, commas like other publications; budget Ramblers Association, residents statement associations, magistrates courts. away day Exception: when the word would not exist without an apostrophe (children’s, B fishermen’s) [see also “contractions”]; B and B (but bed and breakfast first) Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association back bench [n] – from the back benches; back bencher; back-bench member [adj] applause—[Applause.] is an acceptable “stage back-up [n]; back up [vb] direction”, like [Interruption.] and backdate/d/ing [Laughter.] backlog arm’s length; arm’s-length principle backtracking, backtracked Army, the backwoods, backwoodsman artefact back yard as being: TRY as badger sett ascriptions—quotations of five words or more from any UK Official Report take an bail out a boat; bale out of an aeroplane; bail ascription in square brackets after an em an accused person dash immediately after the text of the balkanise, balkanisation, BUT the Balkans quotation. Quotation and ascription take ballyhoo quotation style. bandwagon In Edinburgh: —[Official Report, 13 April 2020; Vol bank: organisation uc, branch lc. “Clydesdale 2, c 9.] or —[Official Report, Finance Committee, 13 Bank has announced a restructuring.” “I April 2020; c 9-11.] For joint meetings: —[Official went to see my personal adviser at Report, Justice 1 Committee and Justice 2 Committee Clydesdale bank.” “The bank has (Joint Meeting), 16 May 2001; c 96.] Note that with announced a restructuring.” World Bank, ascriptions up to and including volume 11, the the bank; Bank of England, the bank; the volume number is to be included; after 24 April monetary policy committee 2001, there will be no more volumes and no need for volume numbers. bank holiday For written answers, —[Official Report, bargepole Written Answers, 12 January 2004; S2W-5413.] Barnardo’s Note that the volume number point above Barnett formula applies to written answers, too. baseline In Westminster: —[Official Report, House of basis TRY to avoid: on a daily/day-to-day basis Commons/Lords, 1 April 2000; Vol 90, c 23-24.] or = daily, day to day; on a much wider basis —[Official Report, House of Commons/Lords, Standing Committee A, 1 April 2000; c 223-24.] = much more widely; on a national basis = nationally; on a part-time basis = part-time; For debates in Westminster Hall: — [Official Report, House of Commons, 30 November on a permanent basis = permanently; on a 2000; Vol 4, c 56WH.] piecemeal basis = piecemeal; on a regular For written answers: —[Official Report, basis = regularly; testing on a universal House of Commons, 20 January 2004; Vol 9, c basis = universal testing 20W.] Basque Country (autonomous region); Basque For written ministerial statements: country (the wider Basque-speaking area) —[Official Report, House of Commons, 12 battalion January 2020; Vol 1, c 25WS.] Do not look for Hansards of select battlefield committees—evidence is done by baulk Gurney’s. be helpful to: TRY help assembly: Northern Ireland/National be of benefit to: TRY benefit Assembly for Wales uc even if the full be of [give] assistance to: TRY assist, help name is not given; the Assembly. Proposed be-all and end-all or imagined assemblies lc; an assembly for bedblocking the south-west of England. Others; check the full name. Assembly of the Council of bedrock Europe; the assembly; North Atlantic begs the question— Chambers’ definition: “to Assembly; the assembly avoid giving an answer” Auditor General bench—[see “member”]

general 3 benchmark paragraph (a); subparagraph benefited, benefiting (ii). If the debate is about benefits [lc] child benefit; housing benefit; subparagraph (ii), you need disability living allowance; all-work test refer only to “subparagraph (ii)” or, even, “the subparagraph”. better-off: better-off people, the better-off, those To identify subparagraph (ii) who are better off from scratch, however, you biannual—twice a year; biennial—every two need the entire root, which years would appear thus: section biased 5(1)(a)(ii). A schedule may be the Bible Genesis, chapter 2, verses 8 to 10; divided into paragraphs, which Psalm 96 may be divided into bill-uc only if it is the full title of a published bill: subparagraphs. Bill; the bill; a bill of rights. Except in Unfortunately, the paragraph the most unusual circumstances, always give numbers are not wrapped in the correct and full name of a published bill. brackets, so we have to say Nicknames lead only to confusion. “paragraph 1 of schedule 5”, or There are two types of bill: public and private. “subparagraph 1(2) of schedule 5”. Proceedings on public and private bills are governed by separate rules under standing BE AWARE orders. 1. That Westminster bills Public bills (chapter 9) have “clauses” rather than “sections”-the subdivisions Broadly speaking, there are two types of public remain the same-and that bill: Executive and non-Executive. A committee clauses in bills become bill and a member’s bill are examples of public sections in acts. A member’s non-Executive bills. Other manifestations of bill there is called private public bill are listed at rule 9.1.1. member’s bill. Westminster Any bill promoted by a Scottish minister is an also has private bills, and Executive bill. they too are governed by A member’s bill is introduced by a member separate standing orders. who may be supported or “sponsored” by other 2. Commons stages are called: members, whose names are printed on the presentation and first reading, back cover of the bill. second reading, committee A committee bill is introduced by the stage, report, third reading convener, who also instructs the drafting. They biggie are referred to as the member in charge biosecurity Public bills have stages-stage bipartisan 1, stage 2, etc. birth rate Private bills (chapter 9A) birthday honours, birthday honours list Private bills are “promoted” by a private interest to give them black spot “particular powers or benefits black [adj and n]: black people in excess of or in conflict with black-and-white corridor; television; film the general law”. Black Isle Private bills have different blacklist stages-preliminary stage; blitzkrieg consideration stage; final bloodbath stage. bloodshed Bills (and acts) generally have sections (at the front) and schedules (at the back). Groups of bloodstock sections on a theme are often organised into blueprint parts (part 1, part 2) (BUT be aware that, until Bluetooth [uc] recently, Westminster used roman numerals board: follow the “Councils, Committees and (part III etc).) Boards” book. Scottish Tourist Board (full A section may be divided into name) but the board (abbreviated); the subsections, which may be board of ICI; the board of governors [see divided into paragraphs, which also “health boards”] may be divided into boardroom subparagraphs. The style for body-swerve [vb] body swerve [n] each component is as follows: section 5; subsection (1);

general 4 bogey—special object of dread; bogeyman; British isles bogie—railway wagon British Sign Language book (and film/play/article) titles: “The brouhaha Hound of the Baskervilles”; familiar short brownfield forms may be used for well-known brownie points reference books: “Oxford English Dictionary”, “Crockford’s”, “Erskine May”, brownies (children’s organisation) “Whitaker’s”, etc. NB “Yellow Pages” buckshee—free Some have been assimilated into the budget—the budget; budgeting; the Budget language and need no embellishment (Scotland) Bill; the bill; the budget when used as adjectives: an Alice in statement wonderland proposal, a catch-22 situation, built environment—[lc] Craigmillar this is my groundhog day. roundabout; Humber bridge; Prestwick Borders, the [this is an EXCEPTION] airport; terminal 5; Leith docks born(e)—babies are born, burdens are borne bumf both: sentences are often wrongly constructed; buoyant whatever follows “both” should be bureau—the Parliamentary Bureau, the bureau duplicated after “and” [the Scottish Parliament business RIGHT: managers committee] • He should both come to Manchester and buroo—the dole end this campaign [A verb follows each] the Business Bulletin • He should go both to Manchester and to business link/s; the business link network; my constituency [A preposition follows Colinton business link each] businessman; businesswoman; small • He should go to both Manchester and my businessman; businesspeople/person constituency [A noun or noun phrase buts: ifs and buts follows each] buyout (n) WRONG: by the bye • He should go both to Manchester and my by-election constituency [A preposition follows “both”, by-product but a noun phrase follows “and”] byelaw • He should both go to Manchester and my bygone constituency [A verb follows “both”, but a noun phrase follows “and”] bypass If in doubt, drop “both”; none of the byway sentences above would suffer. This is byword harder to see in a long sentence, but it is a byzantine very common mistake. bottleneck C boundary commissions [see “commission”] cabinet—the Cabinet (Edinburgh and boxing day Whitehall); cabinet system of government; boyfriend, girlfriend local government: cabinet; Cabinet Office brainchild, brainwave (it is effectively a Government department). Cabinet committees are lower case breadwinner caesarean [lc] breakdown (n) break down (vb) cafe—no accent break-in [n] break in [vb] calibrate/ion break-up [n] – the break-up of the Soviet Union; candy floss [n]; candy-floss [adj]: a candy-floss break up [vb] – to break up economy breakneck speed cannot bridge—uc only when used as a street name: capercaillie (as in the bird, not the band) George IV Bridge; lc elsewhere: the bridges; [see also “built car park environment”] carcase/s brimful carpetbagger bring/brought forward—AVOID [see also carryover (n) carry over (vb) “amendments” and “put forward” for case load alternatives] casework British empire case-by-case programming

general 5 cases is over-used: in many cases = often, or cloud-cuckoo-land

many: In many cases, ratepayers do not CO2 agree = Ratepayers often do not agree/ co—acceptable in hypothetical company Many ratepayers do not agree; names eg Blah, Blah and co NB Do not in some cases = sometimes, or some use an ampersand catch-up (as in to play catch-up) coal mine/mining; opencast mining; catchword, catchphrase opencasting Catholic (as in Roman Catholic, BUT catholic coalface tastes) co-existence CCT—compulsory competitive tendering, co-operate/tion closed-circuit television [CCTV is also, but co-ordinate/tion not always, used for the latter] cockeyed century: 18th century [n], 19th century houses cockney [adj] cognisance chalkface cold war chamber Conveners Group chambers of commerce—as an idea lc, but names of individual chambers are uc combated/ing (Glasgow Chamber of Commerce) come-uppance chancellor—Chancellor of the Exchequer, the commend for chancellor; also Exchequer uc on its own. commission—domestic: check the full title in Chancellor of the Duchy of “Councils, Committees and Boards”: Low Lancaster/Cornwall, the chancellor Pay Commission; Commission for Racial changeover [n], change over [vb]; but try Equality; the commission. Check for a full change name of a genuine royal commission— channel, channel tunnel the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is in “Councils, Committees and character [see “nature”] Boards”. If you cannot verify it, or it clearly chargé d’affaires does not exist, do not give it the authority of charities—check; full correct name is uc capital letters. “There should be a royal cheapjack commission on flatworms.” Europe: the cheapskate European Commission, the Commission checklist commissioner—Upper case when the full title of a European commissioner is used checkpoint (European Commissioner for Enterprise and chemical formulae: H2O, CO2 Information Society); lower case when generic cheque book [n]; cheque-book [adj]; cheque- title is used (the fisheries commissioner) or if book journalism referring to domestic folk (the commissioner for cherry pick; cherry picking is bad; cherry- public appointments). Upper case when used picking policy as a person’s title (Commissioner Bonino). chickenfeed committee—parliamentary: full name uc— child care check in “Vacher’s”; the Procedures Christmas day Committee; the Justice 1 Committee, the [Westminster] Defence Committee. If at all church: the institution in full uc; the Church of possible, avoid abbreviated forms of Scotland/England; the Roman Catholic parliamentary committees; “the education Church; otherwise lc.; the church/churches; committee” merely causes confusion. St Michael’s parish church; Melrose abbey; However, “the justice committee(s)” is Glasgow cathedral acceptable if members are referring to both Cinderella; a Cinderella service committees or it is ABSOLUTELY CIS—Commonwealth of Independent States; impossible to tell which one they mean. former Soviet Union except Baltic states The/a committee/sub-committee; a citizens advice bureau[x] :Portobello citizens fisheries committee; standing/select advice bureau; Citizens Advice Scotland; committees; the committee system, BUT National Association of Citizens Advice Committee of the Whole Parliament. Bureaux; CABx not CABs The eight mandatory committees of the City of London [corporation], the City, City Scottish Parliament are: the Procedures editor, City news Committee, Standards Committee, Audit clawback [n]; claw back [vb] Committee, Finance Committee, European climbdown [n]; climb down [vb] Committee, Equal Opportunities

general 6 Committee, Public Petitions Committee, conference: Labour Party conference; Subordinate Legislation Committee. Commonwealth conference; conference of [(1st Parliament information)The nine subject heads of Government committees are: the Justice 1 Committee; the Justice Speaker’s Conference - body making 2 Committee; the Education, Culture and Sport decisions on constituency boundaries and Committee; the Social Justice Committee; the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee; the electoral law Health and Community Care Committee; the conference titles: “Beyond Foot and Mouth Transport and the Environment Committee (yes, it -The Way Forward”. Try to introduce it with does sound like two committees); the Rural “the conference entitled” or something Development Committee; the Local Government Committee. similar. Some committees have changed their names. The congratulate on [NOT for] Justice 1 Committee was formerly the Justice and consensus—NOT general consensus, or Home Affairs Committee (Justice 2 did not exist); the Social Justice Committee was formerly the Social consensus of opinion Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee; Conservative central office the Rural Development Committee was formerly the constitution/al [lc] Rural Affairs Committee.] consult—NOT consult with Cabinet committees are lower case. continent/al [lc] Local government: lc; finance committee. Others: check in “Councils, Committees continents: Africa Antarctica, Asia, Australia and Boards” for full name; the Committee and Oceania, Europe, North America, on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the South America uc; regions e.g. south-east Environment; the committee; the Jenkins Asia lc committee contractions—do not use except in quotations common law [n]; common-law [adj]; common- [ie do not rather than don’t; will not rather law wife than won’t; cannot rather than can’t] Common Market [EC] contracting out [n]; contracting-out [adj]; contracting-out provisions Commons, the; House of Commons contribution is often used to mean speech [“I common sense [n] commonsense [adj] shall make a brief contribution speech.”] Common Services Agency convener Commonwealth of Independent States [see Conveners Group “CIS”] Convention of Scottish Local Authorities; the Commonwealth (echo of empire) but th COSLA commonwealth (16 century political theory) conventions [lc] unless the full and proper title. European convention on human rights communautaire—EC-minded (actually the European Convention for the communist, communism; but Communist party Protection of Fundamental Human Rights community: European Community, the and Freedoms); the convention Community cop-out [n]; cop out [vb] community councils are lc cornerstone Community Fund (formerly the National Lottery cost-effective policy; the policy is cost effective Charities Board) council [see also “research councils”] local companies [sing. unless absolutely necessary] government; the council; councils; county check the name. Co, Ltd and plc are councils. The full and proper title as accepted abbreviations but only use where appears in “Whitaker’s” is uc. Note that the necessary 32 unitary authorities in Scotland are all compare—”compare to” is to liken; “compare councils; there are no longer such bodies with” is to contrast as “islands councils” or “city councils”. compass points—south; north-east; the councils are written Moray Council, South south-west [the west; the middle east; the Ayrshire Council, Aberdeen City Council, far east; eastern bloc].The style for etc constituencies and regions is set out in the List of councils: Purple Book (member for Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Scotland, North East Fife) Argyll and Bute, City of Edinburgh, compose/comprise—a group comprises its Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and members, or it is composed of them Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Comptroller and Auditor General—the CAG; Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Comptroller and Auditor-General [with Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, hyphen] for Northern Ireland Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, concertina-ed, concertina-ing North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney

general 7 Islands, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, crystal clear Scottish Borders, Shetland Islands, South cubic measurements: cubic centimetres, feet, Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West yards with figures: 300cm3, 3ft3,, 2yd3 Dunbartonshire, Western Isles, West Lothian. cubs (children’s organisation) Sub-units of councils are lc: Moray direct cup final labour organisation; Renfrewshire trading standards office curricular, extra-curricular [adj] Non-local government. Full name as in cutback [n], cut back [vb]: TRY cut (in both “Councils, Committees and Boards”. cases) Scottish Council for Voluntary cv do not use, but CVs is acceptable plural Organisations—the council czar—use tsar instead Council of Europe—the council (not an EU institution) D Council of the European Union—the D day Council; environment council; dare say agriculture council—the council dash—use the em dash and no space on community councils are lc either side councillor [lc] but as a title uc, Councillor data—are plural Stewart database counter-measures dates: Monday 12 November 1978; the countervailing sixth/10th of this month BUT 10 March; county [lc] unless immediately before name: between 1984 and 1988; from 1969 to County Down, NI 1974; from 1969-70 to 1980-81; from 1999 court martial, courts martial [n]; court-martial to 2001; from 1999-2000 to 2000-01; from [vb] now until the year 2000; the 1970s; the court: only appeal and high courts uc: sheriff mid-1990s or the mid-’90s [see also court, county court, magistrates court, “century”] district court, the court; the Court of day: St David’s day, boxing day, new year’s Session, the High Court of Justiciary (both day; Christmas day; international women’s are appeal courts, although the High Court day; tartan day is also court of first instance in serious day one (the beginning of a process, BUT day criminal cases; the Court of Appeal is 1, the first day of a conference etc) England/Wales only). Other Scottish day care courts include Court of the Lord Lyon, day in, day out Scottish Land Court, Accountant of Court’s Office. European: The European Court of deadweight Human Rights [Strasbourg], European death knell Court of Justice [Luxembourg], deathbed International Court of Justice [The Hague], decades—1980s, 1990s [not ‘80s] the Court. See Justice style sheet for decision making [n]; decision-making [adj] - further details. decision-making powers crew [pl] decision time criterion, criteria decommission crony, cronyism decriminalise crossbow deductible/ility cross cutting; cross cutting is good; cross- deepwater (as in deepwater fishing) cutting approach deflator cross-party [adj] – cross-party issue. degree of: TRY to get rid of it: a considerable cross-party groups’ names should be checked degree of protection = considerable in the document in the style folder and are protection; some degree of assistance = lc. some assistance, or just assistance; a high cross-sample degree of risk = a high risk; subsidised to a Crown, as an institution: the Crown, the massive degree = massively subsidised; Spanish Crown give a degree of encouragement to = Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service encourage crusades, the degree [educational]: BA, MSc, PhD Crown Prosecution Service (England and degree [temperature]: centigrade, Celsius, Wales) Fahrenheit

general 8 5°C, 40°F, -10° downstream [adj] down stream [adv] the temperature was 5° above average downturn 20° proof, 25° on the Gay-Lussac scale draconian degree of latitude: 20° north, 15° west draftsman, draughtsman—a draftsman writes, a draughtsman draws; delphic parliamentary draftsman/men de minimis drawing board demonstrate: if the member means “show”, drop-out [n a person] use “show” Drug Enforcement Agency department—the full and proper title of central Government and Scottish Executive drugs courts NOT drug courts departments is uc; Department of Bread drug pedlar; drug pusher; peddle drugs, pedal and Circuses—a full list of their names is a bicycle available on the Scottish Executive dwelling-house website. Parts of departments are lc; air accidents investigation branch. E Dundee social services department E coli department of state e-mail, e-commerce dependent [adj] dependant [n]; [remember: a each other refers to two people; one another dependant] to more than two depression, the; the great depression east, political terms lc: east-west relations; the deregulate, deregulation east [former communist world]; far east; devil eastern Europe; the eastern bloc, the east d’Hondt neuk diarrhoea East Anglia dictionary: “Oxford English Dictionary”, “Black’s Easter Veterinary Dictionary” echo, echoes didicoi—gypsy ECHR references should take the form: Section diktat II, article 52 (you don’t need to mention the section if the speaker doesn’t) dilly-dally economic and monetary union [EMU] directive—uc only if full and proper title economics [sing] director general BUT directorate-general educationist NOT educationalist disfranchise/ment 8-ball NOT eight-ball disks, computer either [sing]: Is either party concerned about dispatch [NOT despatch] that? dissociate Sentences are often wrongly constructed; dissolution—of the Parliament (or the whatever follows “either” should be Westminster Parliament) before a general duplicated after “or” election RIGHT: division—taking a vote; decision time • Either he should give the evidence or he divisive should shut up [A noun follows both do-gooders “either” and “or”] do-it-yourself; DIY is acceptable • He should either give the evidence or shut doctor, with a name: Dr Jones up [A verb follows both] dollars, with figures; $30 million WRONG: Domesday Book • Either he should give the evidence or shut domoic acid up [A noun follows “either”, but a verb doomsday follows “or”] domiciliary Same principle applies to “neither” and “nor” dos and don’ts [See also “both”] dotcom firms electorate [pl] th doozie 11 hour dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s ellipses … NOT . . . double-Dutch 11-plus, 16-plus double-talk embargo, embargoes Downing Street; 10 Downing Street; No 10 EMU—economic and monetary union

general 9 endeavour [vb]: TRY try far east English channel, the channel, channel tunnel the Faroes not the Faeroes enormity: to do with badness, not bigness fascist, fascism entente cordiale feather-bed/ded/ding [vb]; feather bed [n] enterprise companies [see “LEC”] feedstuffs, feeding stuffs [for animals]; equivocal foodstuffs [for humans] etc: not followed by a full stop even if in the title feet, with figures; 100ft, 5ft, etc. of a bill. fens, fenlands ethos [s] and [pl] -- it’s the sheep rule fewer and less: fewer is number, less is euro [see also “money”] € [Alt Gr-4] €6 billion amount: less bread, fewer slices euro zone, euroland field marshal; with a name: Field Marshal Europe [see “bank”, “commission”, “community” Robertson “court”, “council”] fig leaf European monetary union IS WRONG [see figures: EMU] cardinal numbers; use words for nine and Eurosceptic under EXCEPT with distances, percentages eve: Christmas eve, new year’s eve and weights and measures: three years old; four mountains; under-fives; two years; 3 even steven 2 3 miles; 1km; 8kg; 3m (metres); 5m ; 8m even-handed/ly (BUT 3 square miles); 5mg (for milligrams ever-present: an ever-present danger; the BUT 5 micrograms); 90kV; 90kW; 2 litres; danger is ever present mark 1; everyday [adj], every day [n phrase] Unusual measurements eg terawatts; refer evildoer to the SI measurements guide in the Style exams and qualifications O-grade, O-level, Reference folder on the O drive. A-level, standard grade, higher still 10 and over should be written in figures: 27 years ago; post-16 education; over-60s. Exchequer uc per—Use a word, not an abbreviation, after executive uc only if means the Government or per. 250 tonnes per hectare, 250mg per the Scottish Executive; the Executive; kilogramme, £23 per metre. EXCEPTIONS: non-Executive members [see also mph, kph “Administration”, “departments” and “Government”] other numbers -- first, secondly, thirdly, sixty-ninthly, but first meeting, 12th meeting. executive agencies— The Scottish Executive has executive agencies, as do all UK Any numeral that begins a sentence should departments of state. They are not Scottish be written in full: Seventy-five goats ate my Executive agencies. hedge. Million and billion are rendered as words rather than zeros: 4 million The full name is uc: Vehicle Inspectorate; unemployed people; 8.7 million units; £1.5 . So: “The Scottish billion; £2 billion-worth. The American billion Prison Service is an executive agency of is taken as standard (one thousand million) the Scottish Executive”. rather than the British (one million million). exhort Hundreds of thousands; tens of millions exorbitant [See also “ages”, “dates”, “fractions”, expatriate [n and adj] “money”, “time” and individual entries] extra-curricular film (and book/play) titles “Casablanca”, eye-witness “Henry VI, Part 1” BUT some titles have e-zines – italicised, e.g. Salon, the Onion. become expressions, e.g. a catch-22 situation. See entry under book titles F fine tuning: he has resorted to fine tuning; he is faced with, to be: TRY face: that is why we fine tuning/has fine tuned/will fine tune the face [not “are faced with”] problems economy; fine tune; the economy has been fag end fine tuned; fine-tuning approach fair dos fine-toothed comb fallback [n and adj]—a fallback, a fallback firefighter; firefighting; firemaster position; fall back [vb] firepower fallout [n] first world war, great war family—usually plural BUT singular as in: the first-time buyer family is the basic unit of society firth—like other generic geographical terms, far be it from firth is uc before the proper name and lc

general 10 after: Firth of Forth; Solway firth. NB Firth is forswear/swore different from furth, meaning outside of fortress Britain, Europe, Falklands,etc fish farm four-by-four NOT 4x4 fishmeal fractions—always expressed as words (not ½, flyer etc). However, with money, use decimals: flim-flam “Spending has fallen from £1.6 billion to flip-side just £1¼ £1.25 billion.” “This year alone, £½ million £500,000 has been wasted . . .” floodgates Fractions do not take a hyphen unless flowback [n] used as an adjective: two and a half years flow country ago; one [or “a”] third of my constituents; focus group BUT a two-thirds majority focused, focusing, focuses (pl) freeload/er/ing fogey freephone fold: always rendered in words, no hyphens - French francs, with figures: FF32 fourfold, twentyfold, hundredfold fridge but if it is simply a plural, recast the front bench [n] – from the front benches; sentence: my reason for saying so is front-bench [adj] – front-bench member twofold = I have two reasons for saying so front-line services manifold, NOT many-fold fulfil, fulfilment foodstuffs [for humans]; feedstuffs, feeding full-hearted stuffs [for animals] fullness (no longer fulness) foolproof fund generally lc: social fund, regional fund, foot-and-mouth disease national insurance fund, consolidated fund. for ever to do something for ever BUT to be Full and proper titles of organisations such forever doing something as the International Monetary Fund and forbear—refrain or abstain from Save the Children Fund uc no preposition: ie forbear saying, NOT fundholder /ing forbear from saying or forbear to say; the fundraise, fundraising word that follows must end in -ing future is often unnecessary, either because the forebear—ancestor, predecessor future tense is used or because it is used forego: go before—foregone conclusion [see with a word that implies the future, as in also “forgo”] “future prospects” foreshore - the space between high and low water marks; G foreign names: see “International Who’s Who” gaff—blow the gaff, house/flat; gaffe—mistake foreign place names: The authority for gatekeeper; to gate-keep; gate keeping spelling place names is the INDEX of “The gender he/she: follow what the member says; Philips’ Atlas of the World”, NOT the maps. “they” is acceptable as a gender-neutral Use your judgment if an obvious effort is term. “If someone is given a pay rise, they . made to pronounce a name in a certain . .” way, eg Catalunya as opposed to Catalonia general [rank]; but with a name: General or Kosova as opposed to Kosovo. Eisenhower foreign words no italics: detente, risorgimento, gentleman’s agreement etc; follow Chambers’ ruling for accents (eg geopolitical cafe has no accent; raison d’être does) ghetto, ghettos foreign titles follow what the member says: Herr/Mr Kohl; Mrs/Mme Cresson ghillie Foreign Secretary (better than Secretary of gibe State for Foreign and Commonwealth girlfriend, boyfriend Affairs) give to: TRY give foresee/able giveaway [n and adj], give away [vb] forever to be forever doing something BUT to go: from the word go do something for ever go-ahead [n]; go ahead [vb] forgo, forgone: go without (without the “e”) goalposts revenue forgone, forgo the pleasure God, gods; God help the country formula, formulae godspeed: we wish him godspeed formula 1 racing good samaritan

general 11 good will [n]; goodwill [adj] ha’penny, tuppenny-ha’penny; ha’p’orth Good Friday; Good Friday agreement haemorrhage goodbye - we must say goodbye to full The Hague (capital T) employment hair shirt goodness’ sake half day gov (short for governor, not guv) half-truth Government departments—check the full halfway, halfway house name: the Department of the Environment, hallmark Transport and the Regions; the transport hand in hand department; the department; environment protection group; air accidents investigation handout [n] branch [see also “executive agencies”] hara-kiri—Japanese ritual suicide Government/s [uc] [sing]; governmental. hard-working General references to the concept of hassle government —and local government—are haver NOT haiver lc: when we were in government; the headquarters—is singular machinery of government; the head teacher BUT headmaster/headmistress responsibilities of government; devolved government; Cabinet government; local heads of Government, Commonwealth heads government; BUT central Government of Government meeting (CHOGM) (because it means “the Government”) and health board; Argyll and Clyde NHS Board. both together: local and central Follow the same style for the others: Government Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Dumfries and graffiti [pl]; graffito [sing] Galloway, Fife, Forth Valley, Grampian, Greater Glasgow, Highland, Lanarkshire, grams, with figures: 200g Lothian, Orkney, Shetland, Tayside, grant aid [n], grant-aid [vb]; grant-aided work, Western Isles. The/A health board; the the work is grant-aided board; health boards For reference, see grant in aid “The IHSM Health and Social Services grass roots [n]; grass-roots [adj] Year Book”. great war—first world war, first war health care greater Glasgow, greater London, greater health service [lc] [see also “hospitals”] Manchester heartfelt green [lc] green movement/politics/ministers; heat wave green belt; Green/s [uc] is used only for the heathland party and its members heaven; the kingdom of heaven greenfield (and brownfield) BUT green belt hell groundwater hellbent group lc if a unit of something larger: hello consultative steering group; uc if a lead organisation or plc, such as Scottish Media help and assistance: TRY one or the other, Group not both guerrilla helpline guesstimate Her Majesty [uc], never HM when meaning the Queen: Her Majesty’s Government [never guest house HMG]; “HM” is, however, acceptable in guides or girl guides (children’s organisation) conjunction with inspectorates and ships, gulf war for example, thus HM gung-ho inspectors/inspectorates. Exception: Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education H (HMIE), which is an executive agency. Her H: words beginning with “h” take “a” when the Majesty’s Advocate, HMA (another name stress is on the first syllable, “an” when the for the Lord Advocate). stress is on the second [much rarer]: a hero, heroes house, a history, a horrible tale, a hospital, hiccup a helpful woman, a hypothetical question; High Court but an hotel, an historic occasion, an higher still horrific tale, an Hungarian, an hysterical high street—lc as in high street shops; the man man, an hypothesis. USE YOUR HEAD: in the high street BUT uc when the street some members will not want to be “corrected” on this one

general 12 bears that name: Scottish Gas is digging find what you are looking for in this up (the) High Street document, follow “Chambers”, but ignore it high tech [n], high-tech [adj] if what it offers can be confused with high-falutin’ another word (for example, sent again should be re-sent, not resent) or if it Highlands; Highlands and Islands [this is an instructs you to do something that is EXCEPTION to the rule on capitals], a contrary to the first sentence of this entry. highlander NB do not hyphenate 19th century novels, “Highway Code” (the book); highway code (the th 20 century, etc. concept) hijack/er/ing holidaymaker I holocaust – a major fire lc; the Holocaust (during WW2), uc. I is sometimes instinctively regarded as a more genteel version of “me”; the following are hogmanay based on this feeling, and all are wrong: home counties They put it to my dog and I home owner, house owner They were seen by the minister and I Home Secretary (better than Secretary of State This feeling was shared by the council for the Home Department) and I home workers, home working In each case, “I” should be “me”; the test is homoeopathy to try the sentence with “I” on its own: homogeneous—having the same nature (a “They put it to I”, etc. homogeneous population); homogenous— i’s: dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s sharing the same genes ICM opinion poll hoo-hah idiosyncrasy hopefully—”Hopefully, the minister will say if is frequently used when whether would be yes.” means that the minister will be better: “asked if whether he would . . .” hopeful when s/he says yes. If the member means, “I hope that the minister will say illustrate: use sparingly, and when it means yes” make him/her say so. that a small example gives an idea of something larger; where it means “show” or horticulturist “draw attention to”, use those words; and hospitals and health centres; for simplicity treat please avoid “is illustrative of” all hospitals and health centres as if they imperial, imperialism, imperial preference are branches of a larger organisation (probably an NHS trust), which means the imply, infer: I imply something by what I say; generic term is lower case. Durham Road you infer something from what I say health centre; Edinburgh royal infirmary; in as much as the Royal; Garnock day hospital; in excess of: TRY more than Armitstead child development centre. The in-patient full name of an NHS trust is given as in in receipt of: TRY receive/ed/ing “The IHSM Health and Social Services in so far as Year Book”. Dundee Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. in the course of: TRY in, during hotch-potch in the region of: TRY about hotline in view of the fact that: TRY as, since the House—if a member says this, substitute inches, with figures: 2in; 16in “the chamber” unless they mean the House incorporated, in company names: Inc of Commons/Lords); clarify references to incumbent (adj and n) “this side of the house” to indicate to which industrywide party the member is referring infer [see “imply”] housebreaking inflation proof to inflation proof; inflation housebuilding proofing is good; the economy has been hubbub inflation proofed; inflation-proofing hullabaloo approach (non-inflation proof; non-inflation hyphens should be used in adjectival phrases: proofing approach) “the cost-effective policy” as opposed to infrastructure “the policy is cost effective”. They should initials: with numbers: M1, F111, SS20; but NOT BE USED in conjunction with BBC 1, 2; do not mix lc and uc: COSLA, adverbs: the politically motivated attack. MOD, ROSPA, etc; sets of initials take This is (another) tricky area. If you cannot

general 13 “the”—the TUC, the DSS—unless they can NB privy counsellor (not councillor) be said as a “word”: NATO, GATT, MAFF, judiciary sing or pl, depending on euphony NUPE [see also “acronyms”] junior, in someone’s name -- Jnr inner city—the inner city [n]; inner-city jury [singular, if possible] problems [adj] innocuous K inoculate kerb-crawler, kerb-crawling activity (adj) he is inquire, inquiry [lc]: Layfield inquiry NOT kerb crawling enquire/enquiry kerfuffle inshallah – if Allah wills (God willing) kick start [n]; kick-start [vb] inspectorate—lower case if part of a larger kilograms, with figures: 12kg organisation; upper case if an executive kilometres, with figures: 20km; kilometres per agency (check Vachers): Her Majesty’s hour, with figures: 70kph Inspectorate of Education; HM inspectorate of constabulary, nuclear installations kilotonne, kilotonnage inspectorate; Vehicle Inspectorate kilovolt, with figures - 300kV (executive agency of Department for kilowatts, with figures, 300kW Transport) kilowatt hours – 300kWh install, instil, remember “all” is the long one kind of: TRY to avoid: this kind of organisation inter “inter” words usually have no hyphen = such organisations, such an organisation (intercontinental, intergovernmental, [even uglier is “these kinds of interrelate/d/ionship) organisation/s”] interruption: every effort must be made to some kind of method = some method discover who made a sedentary a kind of attitude = an attitude intervention and what was said. If all else any kind of agreement = any fails, use [Interruption.] to account for an agreement otherwise inexplicable response or loss of Same applies to sort and type continuity by the main speaker. [Laughter.] and [Applause.] may also be used as king—the King of Norway; King Haakon; the “stage directions”, but only when there is a kings and queens of Scotland loss of continuity or sustained kingdom: uc in full title of an earthly kingdom, laughter/applause. lc otherwise: Kingdom of Denmark, United iron curtain Kingdom; “throughout this kingdom”, kingdom of heaven irredentist - one who aims to “redeem” territory from foreign rule kirk -- same rule as church -ise, -isation as word endings NOT –ize, - kitemark ization; rationalise, civilise, polarisation knock-on effect islands – treated as “NATURAL FEATURES” knockabout unless governmental, when uc: the knockdown [adj]; knock down [vb]; knockdown northern isles; the Isle of Jura; the Falkland price islands BUT the Falkland Islands know-how Government; the Western Isles ITBs - industry training boards [lc]: L engineering industry training board lacklustre item, agenda item 1, 2, etc lamp posts ivy league landmines landmark J landowner; land ownership jack-in-the-box lapdog jail largesse jigsaw Latinate endings – follow speaker where they jobcentre use an acceptable plural, otherwise, follow jobseeker; jobseekers allowance first option in “Chamber’s” Johnny-come-lately, Johnnys-come-lately (pl) laughter—[Laughter.] is an acceptable “stage join with: TRY join direction”, like [Applause.] and [Interruption joined-up government (lc government) .][see “interruption”] judgment law officers – England and Wales: the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney-General, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Solicitor-General;

general 14 —Scotland: the Lord Advocate, the licence [n]; license [vb] Solicitor General for Scotland (both life and death, a matter of life and death, a life- members of the Executive), the Advocate and-death situation General life-blood lawbreaker/ing life cycle lawmaker/ing lifestyle lay-by lifeline leader generally lc: leader of the council, lifelong leader of the Labour Party lifetime leapfrog [n and vb] light-hearted/ly LEC - local enterprise companies List of LECs: lightweight Highlands and Islands Enterprise like, such as: towns like Manchester = other towns, ie, excluding Manchester; towns Argyll and the Islands Enterprise such as Manchester = a group of towns, Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise including Manchester Inverness and Nairn Enterprise limited in company names: Ltd Lochaber Ltd linchpin Moray Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise lip service Orkney Enterprise list: blacklist, checklist, shortlist Ross and Cromarty Enterprise little England, little England tendency, little Shetland Enterprise Englanders Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise livestock [pl] Western Isles Enterprise lo and behold loch—follow the rule for natural features: Loch Scottish Enterprise Lomond; Duddingston loch Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire logbook Scottish Enterprise Borders logjam Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway long-standing; of long standing Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire Scottish Enterprise Fife long-term [adj]; the long term [n] Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley loony left Scottish Enterprise Glasgow loophole Scottish Enterprise Grampian lord-lieutenant, lords-lieutenant Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire Lords, House of: their lordships, bishops, law Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian lords; peers, life peers, peeresses, Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire peerages Scottish Enterprise Tayside lose out: TRY lose

loth [adj]—reluctant; loathe [vb]—to hate left wing [n], left-wing [adj]; the left; left-wing Lowlands (of Scotland) [uc], but a lowlander party, left wingers luddite legislature - meaning the building or the estate of the realm lunch time less and fewer: fewer is number, less is amount: less bread, fewer slices M less favoured areas—LFAs macroeconomic, microeconomic less well-off people; the less well-off; those who Mafia—the organisation; a mafioso—the are less well off member leukaemia magazines – check in “Willings”. If in “Willings”, italicised. If not, use quotation marks. E- level 2 figures, level 3 figures etc—follow what zines, although not in “Willings” are is written in the document italicised. liaison mailbag, postbag library – the National Library of Scotland; the main line [n] mainline [adj] British Library (institutions); Piershill library; Slateford Road library (branches) main stream [n], mainstream [adj] Lib Dems majority—sing or pl, according to context: the majority is not always right; the majority of Lib-Lab pact the inhabitants have voted with their feet licence holder [but TRY most]

general 15 make it clear that (1) avoid references such as “the make sure; TRY ensure member who spoke for the make-up [n], make up [vb] Conservative party”, “the member who opened for the Opposition”, “the malarkey member for one of the Glasgow man [lc]—meaning the human race; mankind constituencies”, “the last Labour man-made member to speak before me”, “the management buy-out—MBO; management- member who is to wind up for the employee buy-out—MEBO Government” management—pl when it means the people; (2) avoid making furniture talk: “my BUT management is more an art than a front bench has put a powerful case” science Identify who they mean. manifesto, manifestos; the Conservative members’ business manifesto; NB: “The Communist Manifesto” metres, with figures: 100m, 5m [Marx, 1848] MFA - multi-fibre agreement many—number; much—quantity: many microgram, with figures: 5 micrograms loaves, much bread mid-1990s marginalise middle ages mark 1, mark 2 middle east marketeer [EC]; anti-marketeer, pro-marketeer middleman/men marketplace midlands, east midlands, East Midlands airport, marquess [English]; marquis [French]; with west midlands name: Marquess of Queensberry mileage mason, masonic miles per hour, with figures: 90mph master [of a ship]; shipmaster; harbourmaster minister, ministerial mastermind “minister” means any member of the mathematics [sing] Government; they should always be given may well be: TRY to avoid: it may well be that their full title in references: eg Minister for we shall develop = we may develop Education, Europe and External maybe - TRY perhaps Affairs/Minister of Lost Dogs, Leisure and means [n, income]—pl Fashion EXCEPT when it is clear who is means [n, method]—can be sing or pl: this meant by “the secretary of state” or “the policy is just a means to an end; the minister”; ditto for shadow ministers. Government’s means to this end are the generic terms for all ministers are lc: recent tax cuts ministers, fisheries/green ministers; the means test to means test; means testing is Scottish ministers bad; the benefits are means tested; means- minority [see “majority”] tested benefits minuscule media [pl], but use your judgment minute [vb] minuting—to take a minute, medieval minuted meetings—the Parliament and its committees mismatch/ed/ing have meetings [see also “sitting”] Mòd, the meet with: TRY meet Mohammed, the Prophet megawatts, with figures, 300MW monarch, the monarch; monarchy member states [of EC] money: member [See Procedure Guide for setting up a few pence, but 5p; £2, £2.35, £200, ministers and members]—member of the £2,000, £2 million, £2 billion [= £2,000 Scottish Parliament;/National Assembly fro million] Wales members; members of the prefer decimals in large amounts (no Assembly AMs; MLAs; MSPs; MPs; fractions): £2.5 million, £3.75 billion Government member, Opposition member, US dollars: $17,000, $1.20, 20 cents, non-Executive member; Labour member, $64,000 question back-bench member [back bencher], front- bench member [front bencher]; member of deutschmark: DM3.2, DM2 million the Government, Opposition, Cabinet, French francs: FF30 million committee, party, etc; senators; members The euro: €8 billion [AltGr-4] of Congress; deputies, member in charge All other currencies in full: 7 billion yen, (committee bills) 2.5 million Swiss francs, etc.

general 16 but: the pound, the pound sterling, the Yorkshire Dales national park/the Peak dollar, the euro park/the Pembrokeshire Coast National worth: £250,000-worth of coal, millions Park Authority takes a tough line on of pounds-worth BUT tuppenceworth planning issues. NB between £3 million and £5 million nationalist, Scottish nationalist, Scottish [NOT between £3 and £5 million]; National Party between £3 million and £5 million- nationwide worth, the same rule applies for odd natural features – the generic term is uc before the proper name and lc after it. Thus old money: 4/- (four shillings); 4/6 (four we have: Loch Lomond; Dunsapie loch; and six); 6d or sixpence, depending on Firth of Forth; Solway firth; Ben Nevis; context/feel Rannoch moor; Rock of Gibraltar; ; Sea of Marmara; North sea; Pentland moneylender hills; the machars; the Trossachs; the flow moneys country; the north-east; Gullane bents MORI poll nature: often needs rewriting: the amendments are technical in nature = the amendments Morton’s fork are technical; matters of a party-political motto, mottoes nature = party-political matters; the same mount/ain—generic term lc after the proper applies to “character” name and uc before it: Atlas mountains, but naught, means nothing; a nought means a zero Mountains of Mourne, Mount Etna; Cader neanderthal Idris; Cairn Gorm (the peak) Cairngorms (the range); Munro; Corbett near to: TRY near moveable neither (singular) - see either for usage movement: trade union movement, co- nevertheless, nonetheless operative movement, labour movement. new deal multi no hyphen, except when followed by a newspapers – check in “Willings”; titles are vowel, as in multi-agency, or in the italicised. following cases: Business a.m. multi-fibre agreement—MFA Daily Mail multi-religious Daily Mirror Munro, a Munro-bagging expedition, a Munro Daily Record bagger Edinburgh Evening News museums and galleries – check, but resist the Evening Times temptation to be ultra-correct: Museum of the Moving Image; Museum of Scotland; Evening Telegraph Natural History Museum [no need to Financial Times “correct” to British Museum (Natural Private Eye History)]; Tate Gallery; McLellan Galleries Scotland on Sunday BUT Burrell collection Sunday Herald Muslim Sunday Mail Mylne’s Court Sunday Mirror myriad [adj], there are myriad responses NOT Sunday Post (but The Sunday Post there is a myriad of responses Magazine) Sunday Sport N naive NOT naïve; naivety The Courier namby-pamby The Daily Star national health service, health service, the The Daily Star of Scotland service, the NHS The Daily Telegraph national lottery The Economist national park – lc when referring to the space; uc when referring to the bureaucracy The Guardian (although only the full and correct name The Herald gets a full set of capitals): there should be a The Independent (but Independent on national park; the national parks; I went for Sunday) a walk in the lake district; cycling in the The Observer Yorkshire dales is thirsty work; planning policy in the peak district is a farce; BUT

general 17 The Press and Journal odd £400-odd million, 40-odd years old The Scotsman odds, proportion, ratio: 10:1 The Sun of the order of: TRY about The Sunday Times Official Secrets Acts is correct (many are in The Times existence, so a year is not needed). Official Secrets Act is acceptable in colloquial use. The Times Educational Supplement off-licence, on-licence (as in licensed premises) The Times Higher Education Supplement offline new year’s day, new year’s eve offload, onload NGOs - non-governmental organisations offshore nimby, nimbyism oil-seed rape 9/11 – September 11 attack on USA okay 9-to-5 job old-age pension/er nirvana ombudsmen lc, whether the person or the nissen hut organisation is being referred to. nitty-gritty online no one [sing] on numerous occasions TRY often, several no - the answer is no (do not use quotation times marks) on-going, but TRY continuing no-go area on stream non-profit-making on to NOT onto none [sing]—none of us is saying that one another is not the gentrified version of nonetheless, nevertheless each other; it refers to more than two nonsense, NOT a nonsense people; each other means only two nonsensical: “nonsense” is also an adjective; one man, one vote try it instead one-off: a one-off payment; a one-off; I took nordic—lc unless the name of an organisation: one off the shelf the nordic rim; nordic people; the Nordic one-sided Council onshore North America opencast [see coal] north of Ireland opera – Scottish Opera; Buxton Opera House; North sea going to the opera; “The Force of Destiny” Northern Ireland may be called the Province, Opposition [the official parliamentary the Six Counties, Ulster, the north of Opposition] sing; the official Opposition; Ireland; follow the member’s usage the Leader of the Opposition [but leader of Northern Ireland Office the Labour etc. party]; deputy Leader of the nosey Opposition; Opposition parties not so much ... as—NOT but—; eg: “It was not general references to the concept of so much his tone, which was so soothing opposition are lc: when we were in as to be soporific, as his words which opposition; the frustrations of worried me.” opposition [see “Government”] nought, zero opprobrium number may be singular or plural, according to opt-out [n and adj], opt out [vb]: opting-out context: a large number of people are hospitals; hospitals which opt out; opted- waving their hats; there is a large and out schools; schools which have opted out growing number of volunteers order—lc except when the full title is given; number 1 priority Scotland Act 1998 (Border Rivers) Order numerals [see “figures”] 1999 numptie organ grinder orient [vb, transitive]; orientate [vb, intransitive] O Osmotherly rules refers to the rules that allow objective 1, 2, 3, 5b civil servants to attend Westminster select occasions is over-used: on many occasions = committees many times, often; on several occasions = outmanoeuvred several times; quick rule: leave out “on” out-of-area—NOT outer area—operations and change “occasions” to “times” outdated ocean lc: Atlantic ocean outer Hebrides

general 18 outflanked park: Holyrood park, Hyde park corner, Central outflow park; BUT the Royal Parks [executive outmoded agency] out-patient Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time available for its completion outturn Parliamentary Bureau, the bureau [the Scottish outvoted Parliament business managers committee] outwith parliament [see also “assembly”, “session” and over is often used when more than would be “Scottish Parliament”] uc if it exists, even if better; over more than 60 per cent of the full name is not used: the Scottish production . . . Parliament; the Parliament; European OVER [some familiar faces] Parliament; Duma; House of overcapacity Commons/Lords/Representatives; overcrowd/ed/ing Congress; Senate; parliamentary, overdeveloped parliamentary questions; parliamentarian; overdo/ne “there should be a parliament. . .” over-egg For period between elections, use “session” NOT “parliament”, which is a over-80s Westminster term. overestimate [n and vb] Physical environment lc (eg chamber, floor) over-exaggerate; but TRY exaggerate partake of; means share, not take part overexcited party: see political parties overfishing past experience TRY experience overfly/ing, overflight past history TRY history overheat pasteurise over-indexed pawkie overkill pawnshop overlong payroll overmanning peacekeeping overmuch peatland over-optimistic peddle drugs, pedal a bicycle overpay/ing/aid/ment peer, peeress, life peer over-prescribing peninsula lc: Gower peninsula; adj: peninsular over-production Pennines, the overrate people—only the full titles of royals, politicians overreact and churchfolk uc; others lc unless the job over-regulate is used as a title: Prince Charles; the Duke over-represented/ation of York; Queen Beatrice; the King of overrule Norway; Lord Irvine; the Prime Minister; the override First Minister; the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Bishop of Durham; overrun Cardinal Winning; the Moderator of the overshoot General Assembly of the Church of over-simplify Scotland; St Catherine; a saint; Professor overstretched Grey; the professor of linguistics; the lord over-strong provost of Glasgow; the mayor of London; Councillor Smith; chief constable of oversupply [n and vb] Strathclyde police; Inspector Goole; over-use procurator fiscal; secretary-general of the over-value United Nations; governor of the Bank of owner-occupier, owner occupation England; convener of the all-party working group; chairman and chief executive of the P Royal Bank of Scotland; president of the Paisley buddie NOT buddy Royal College of Physicians paper chase -people (suffix) Treat the same as men/women (as suffixes) eg paperwork sportsman/sportsmen/sportswomen parent-teacher association per: TRY a—£25 a week, £3 a head

general 19 per cent—1 per cent; 0.5 per cent; 15 to 20 per Labour Party cent; between 1 and 2 per cent Scottish Green Party percentage points: one percentage point is Scottish Liberal Democrats almost always much larger than 1 per cent. For example, if the mortgage rate is raised Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party from 7 per cent to 10.5 per cent, it has risen by 3.5 percentage points, but by 50 Common short forms are acceptable, e.g. per cent. Lib Dems, Greens, nats [lc], but follow period of time: TRY period, time member’s use. The ilk part goes down if the full name is not used: Conservative party; period: four-year [etc] period: TRY four years Green party. [etc] political stances lc – nationalist; unionist; periodicals – check in “Willings”. If in “Willings”, monarchist; republican; loyalist; fascist; italicised. If not, use quotation marks. E- communist zines, although not in “Willings” are italicised. politicking permanent secretary - chief civil servant in a politics [sing] Government department Poor Law, the permissible population [pl] petition: PE61 (no space), petition PE370 portakabin [lc] unless referring to the company NOT petition 370 post office—the Post Office; Post Office pettifogging Counters, Consignia (the organisation); phase 1, 2, 3 Leith post office (branch) phenomenon [sing], phenomena [pl] postbag, mailbag PFI/PPP not PFI-PPP postcode philistine pound, pound sterling [see “money”] phone—not forbidden, but prefer telephone; powerhouse but: phone-in, mobile phone and car phone powerplay phoney practice [n], practise [vb] photo call, photo opportunity praetorian guard phurnacite precognosce, precognition pigeonhole [n and vb] precondition piggyback predate pigmy predilection—preference pin money prejudge placemen premise plane, aeroplane prerogative, royal prerogative [of mercy] play and film titles: “Candide”, “Gone with the pre-school Wind” President [of a country or the European playground Commission, uc], President Bush playgroup president [of anything else]; presidency [of playing field anything] plc, plcs, water plcs Presiding Officer, Deputy Presiding Officer, the plus £400-plus million, 40-plus years old Presiding Officers police [pl]; police force [sing]; policemen, press [newspapers or journalists] sing or pl, policewomen, policemen and women; depending on context: the press is a Strathclyde police, Metropolitan police, bulwark of democracy; the press are Royal Ulster constabulary. hounding my brother List of Scottish forces: Central Scotland prevent, stop: you stop someone doing police; Dumfries and Galloway something; you prevent them from doing constabulary; Fife constabulary; Grampian something; if I stop you doing something, police; Lothian and Borders police; you are already doing it; if I prevent you Northern constabulary; Strathclyde police; from doing it, I do not even let you start Tayside police preventive, NOT preventative, medicine policyholder primary 1, primary 2 etc political parties – Prime Minister, prime ministerial; NOT PM Scottish parliamentary parties: PRINCE Put in full: projects in controlled Conservative and Unionist Party environments Co-operative Party

general 20 Principality [meaning Wales] Queen, Her Majesty the Queen, the Queen of principle [n]—a fundamental, or a rule of action; Belgium; queens and kings of Australia principal [adj]—first, most important; Queen’s counsel, QC; plural is also Queen’s principal [n]—head of a college counsel, but the abbreviation is QCs. printout [n] question but: there is no question that this will prior to: TRY before happen = it will not happen; there is no prisons All forms of their name are acceptable: question but that this will happen = it will HM Prison Edinburgh, HMP Edinburgh and happen prison question: parliamentary questions; question private finance initiative—PFI time; First Minister’s question time; questions for oral answer; oral questions; private/public sector investment [no hyphen] questions for written answer, written privately/publicly owned [no hyphen] questions privilege—parliamentary privilege, breach of question-and-answer session privilege question mark proactive question whether, NOT question of whether procurators fiscal (pl) queueing professor lc; with a name uc: Professor Philip quicker is an adjective; more quickly is the Smith, Professor Smith; the professor of adverbial phrase; thus, “a quicker rocket science response” is right, but “it rose quicker” is program, computer wrong; it should be “it rose more quickly” proportion, odds, ratio: 10:1 prorogue, prorogation: the Westminster Parliament is prorogued at the end of a R session; dissolved before a general election Rs (the three Rs) Protestant racecourse protester race-specific, religion-specific programmes, training, etc. proviso, provisos rack—to torture, torment (NB wrack and ruin) psi—pounds per square inch radio/television programmes: “Panorama”, public [pl] “The World at One”, BUT the shipping public buildings uc: Hailes Castle; Saughton forecast, the news. House; Palace of Holyroodhouse; Hampton radio: Radio 1, 2, 3, 4; Capital Radio Court Palace; . EXCEPTION: stations are lc, as in range lc: Pennine range Waverley station; St Andrew Square bus rateable station [see also “church”] ratio, odds, proportion: 10:1 public-private partnership re – prefix, use hyphen only when following public/private sector investment [no hyphen] verb begins with e or if confusion may purpose-built arise. put forward [great favourite, this: see “bring re-enact forward”] TRY: re-let [n, vb and adj] introduce, sponsor [a bill] reaffirm/ation express [concern, misgivings, etc] reafforestation NOT reforestation give [reasons, views] real and genuine: TRY one or the other make [suggestions, an argument, a case] realm, the; defence of the realm; Defence of move [amendment, motion] the Realm Acts lodge [amendments] reannounce use [arguments] reassure pyrrhic victory recess recommission Q referable qualifications out in full first time, except: PhD, reformation, the MSc, BSc, MA, BA, LLB. regarding, in/with regard to: TRY about, on quango, quangos “Register of Interests of Members of the Quebec, Québec, Quebecer and Québécois Scottish Parliament”—the register of members’ are all acceptable—follow what the speaker interests says.

general 21 regulations: delegated legislation made under royal charter a parent act; lc except when giving full title: royal commission—only the full name of a Abortion Regulations 1968; the regulations. real one is uc: a royal commission; the Subdivisions: regulation; regulation 1(2). Royal Commission on Environmental regulator Pollution; “Councils Committees and reinforce Boards” can be helpful [see “commission”] reinstate royal dockyard reintroduce royal family reinvent, reinvest/ment royal prerogative reinvest Royal Navy, royal naval religion uc: Christian; Buddhism; Muslim; RSPB Scotland—is the full name Hindu; Shi’ite; Orthodox; Presbyterian. rubber stamp [n], rubber-stamp [adj and vb] Bahá’í rubicon, crossing the rubicon remembrance day rule: rule 18.1 of the standing orders; rules of remuneration order; judges’ rules; rules of court renaissance rulebook rent-a-mob run-up [n]; run up [vb] report: the Cubie report, report of the Cubie rundown [adj and n], run down [vb] committee; the committee’s report, sixth runway report of the Audit Committee Republic of Ireland; the Republic S republican [n and adj] sale room rerun saltire research councils/institutes: full name as in salutary “Whitaker’s”—Particle Physics and scaremongering, scaremongers Astronomy Research Council; Macaulay schemes lc: community refurbishment Institute; the Scottish agricultural and scheme; higher still; city challenge; new biological research institutes; research deal councils schools— full name uc, abbreviations lc. restaurateur Check for full name in the local phone book resupply or with the education authority (not the retail prices [not price] index—RPI “Education Year Book”). Cumnock rethink [n and vb] Academy; Oban High; Royal High Primary reunification School; reunite school leavers, school-leaving age reuse schoolteacher, schoolmaster, schoolmistress reverend: the Rev John Jones, the Right Rev BUT head teacher John Jones or Mr Jones NEVER Rev schtum Jones or the Rev Jones scot free revisit Scotch: Scotch whisky; otherwise, Scottish or right hon Scots right wing [n], right-wing [adj]; the right; right- Scottish Administration (meaning the wing party, right wingers Government); the Administration [see also ring fence to ring fence; ring fencing is bad; “department” and “executive”] the funds are ring fenced; ring-fencing Scottish Council for Development and Industry approach Scottish council of the Labour Party river—River Thames; Mississippi river Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency road works Scottish Executive [see “executive”] roll-out [n] Scottish ministers [see “ministers”] Roman Catholic, Catholic Scottish National Party; nationalists Romania Scottish Parliament: Scottish Parliamentary roughshod Corporate Body (the parliamentary routing the enemy; but routeing roads corporation); committee; sub-committee; session (the four years between elections); royal lc, except when the full and proper title of whip; meeting; public gallery; business organisations motion; motion; point of order; suspension royal assent (disturbance); adjournment; financial

general 22 memorandum [see also “bills” and siphon, siphoning off “questions”] sitting—a Westminster term for what in scouts (children’s organisation) Edinburgh is called a meeting. Often used scrap heap, scrap yard erroneously. A sitting day is the term used scurrilous to describe a day on which the clerks are open for business and when the Parliament Scylla and Charybdis is not in recess or dissolved. Meetings are sea—North sea, Irish sea held on sitting days, but the fact that a day sea bed, sea shore BUT foreshore is a sitting day does not mean that there seamen, seafarers will be a meeting. All blackbirds are seasons [lc]—spring, summer, autumn, winter thrushes; not all thrushes are blackbirds seat belts [see also “meetings”] second world war, world war two sizeable second-hand [adj], at second hand skean dhu is wrong; sgian dubh is right see is often used unnecessarily: “We all want skulduggery to see Morton win” usually means “We all slaughterhouse want Morton to win” smallholding seedcorn smokescreen self-govern/ing/ment socialist, but in full titles: Socialist Education self-interest Association sell-by date socioeconomic sell-out [n]; sell out [vb] something like: TRY about, almost, nearly semi-detached sort of - see kind of serviceman, -woman, servicemen and women soundbite session—in Edinburgh, the four-year term soup kitchen between elections; in Westminster, the South America parliamentary year from Queen’s speech to south bank [of the Thames]; south bank, prorogation; also (in committees) evidence- London taking session south lc; including south of Ireland; NB: north- set-aside rules; the set-aside south dialogue [rich and poor sett where animals live; otherwise set countries] Sewel motion, Sewelling, Sewelled sovereign, the sovereign sgian dubh speak — Newspeak, doctorspeak etc shadow Cabinet, shadow chancellor, shadow specialty [in medicine], NOT speciality spokesman spin-doctor; spin-doctoring sheep farm spiv sheikh, with a name: the Sheikh of Dubai spokesman, spokeswoman, spokesperson— sheriff officer/s whichever the member uses; shibboleth Government/Opposition spokesman shilly-shally/ing sportsmen/women ship names: no quotes, no italics – springboard Marchioness; HMS Victory; MV Gaul; the square measurements—feet, metres, yards; Belgrano (no need to put HMS/MV in full) with figures: 60m2, 9,000ft2, 2yd2; but 60 shopkeeper square miles. shoplifting St—short for saint, not street short-sighted St David’s day Short, Edward, later Lord Glenamara; so-called St James’s park Short money to assist Opposition parties at staff [pl] Westminster stage 1, 2, 3 shortfall stage directions – see interruption shortlist standby [n], stand by [vb] (even if used in a side effect legal context) sidetrack standing orders [lc, pl]—rule 18.2 Sikh standstill [n], stand still [vb] silicon glen, silicon valley statable Single European Act state; the state, reasons of state; member Sinn Féin state; state benefit; department of state;

general 23 head of state; state visit, nation state, taxpayer; tax-paying, BUT council tax payer welfare state, state of Ohio; Washington teamwork State University TEC – training and enterprise council state veterinary service spike tee-shirt station lc: Drem station Teesside statute, statute book telephone preferred to phone BUT mobile and steamroller/ed car phone step-parents, stepfather, stepchild television in full first time, TV therafter sterling - see money television/radio programmes “Panorama”; stillbirth “The World at One”. Check company stocktaking names; BBC 1; Channel 5; Radio 4; Border stone, with figures: 2 stone, 10 stone Television storeys: two-storey [not storeyed] building temperature [see “degree”] straight away, NOT straightaway ten commandments, the straightforward textbook strait and narrow thank you: we say thank you to the Government straitened [circumstances, etc.] that [see “which”] straitjacket The Hague BUT the Netherlands, the Scottish straits [see “natural features”] Executive and so on. strath [see “natural features”] theatre—King’s Theatre; the theatre world street: Downing Street third world, third-world countries stushie NOT stooshie the three Rs SUB—a selection threshold sub-committee throughcare sub-continent throughput subcontract/ing/or throwaway society sub-culture tightrope sub-group time: speeches and debates are timed using sub judice the 24-hour clock, hours and minutes sub-mode sickness separated by a colon: 09:00; 13:15. In text, submunitions do what the member says, but use figures: subparagraph 7 o’clock, half past 2, 4 pm, 5 minutes to 3, sub-post office 7.45, etc; BUT nine-to-five job sub-Saharan Africa timeframe subsea, undersea timeline substandard timetable subtext timescale subtitle [n and vb] titles: non-ministerial titles are lc (except when being set up to speak), clerk to the substitutes bench Parliament summit—Luxembourg summit tittle-tattle supranational to-ing and fro-ing sus NOT suss (eg, sus it out; sussed it out) Tolbooth (a town hall); tollbooth (on a bridge) swathe NOT swath tonnes, NOT tons: 4 tonnes, 10 tonnes; kilotonnes T top-slice t’s: dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s Topsy – growed like Topsy take-home pay towards, NOT toward. BUT untoward take-up [n and adj], take up [vb] townie takeaway [n and adj] trade names lc when assimilated into the takeover [n]; take over [vb]; takeover panel language and used generically: biro, Taliban cellophane, hoover, nylon, sellotape; BUT targeted/ing Mini [the car], Ceefax, Guinness, Marmite task force trade unions, NOT trades unions; the unions; tawse but Trades Union Congress; NB: Wales [NOT Welsh] TUC

general 24 Some trade unions are not acronyms: union—the union; unionist; union flag, union Unison, GMB jack tradeable Unison tranquilliser, NOT tranquiliser; tranquillity United Kingdom; the kingdom trans “trans” words usually have no hyphen United Nations organisations uc in full (eg (transatlantic, transfrontier BUT trans- United Nations Educational, Scientific & Pennine, trans-Siberian) Cultural Organization) treaty: uc only for full title—treaty of Rome; the university: check for full name in “Education Maastricht treaty; treaties; the treaty; a Year Book”—University of Aberdeen; Heriot- treaty Watt University; Open University; the triable, NOT tryable universities; a university trolley, trolleys up front tsar, NOT czar update [n and vb] tunnel lc: Channel tunnel, Mersey tunnels uprate/ing tuppence: I would not give tuppence for his upskill opinion upturn tuppenny-ha’penny USA, United States, United States of America, turncoat the US, the States: follow what the member turnout [n], turn out [vb] says turnover [n], turn over [vb] user-friendly turnstile utilise, utilisation: TRY use [n and vb] 24/7 utilities—check: Scottish Power; Scottish Water [it is sometimes impractical to be too type of [see “kind of”] precise because of links across utilities or suppliers] U utopia [lc] when used generically U-turn uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all V under way, NOT underway valley lc as it generally follows the proper name Thames valley [see “natural UNDER—a selection features”] undercapacity variety of—sing or pl, depending on context underdeveloped versus: in the context of sport and law use v on underestimate [n and vb] its own, as in Airey v Ireland, or Celtic v under-fives Rangers, everything else, use versus. underfunded veto, vetoes under-indexed videoconference/ing underinvestment vilify undergraduate vires; ultra vires—outside the powers underground VisitScotland underpay/ing/aid/ment vitally important TRY vital underpin vitamin A, B, etc. underprivileged volcano, volcanoes underrate W under-recognise/d/ing/tion wagon; bandwagon under-represent/ed/ing/ation war lc: first/second world war, Franco-Prussian under-resourced war, great war, Vietnam war undersea, subsea warhead undershoot warplane undersupply [n and vb] wartime, peacetime undervalue weald [see “natural features”] underwater website under-secretary website addresses: lc underground lines; the London underground; weeks and years: dementia awareness week, London Underground [the company]; the European year of the elderly underground, the tube welfare state

general 25 well-being (nationwide, countrywide). NB Europe-wide well-off: well-off people, the well-off, those who NOT European-wide are well off windfall [n and adj] Welsh nationalist/s; Plaid Cymru wishy-washy west country withhold/eld west end lc: the west end; Glasgow’s west end within TRY in west lc, including political references: east- witness [vb]: TRY see west relations; the west [non-communist wits’ end world] EXCEPT in proper names: West women’s liberation, women’s lib Yorkshire, workforce whether: “if” is often used instead; if whether workload will fit, use it; the question whether, NOT the question of whether workhorse which/that: apples, which come from France, working-class [adj], working class [n] are green = all apples come from France workman, workpeople, workplace and are green; apples that come from workshy France are green = those which come from worth [see “money”] France are green worthwhile [adj], worth while: it is a worthwhile which/who—which for things [including the project; the project is worth while Government, companies, councils, etc.]; wrack wrack and ruin (NB rack one’s brains) who for people; whose for both: the company which has worked hard, not who written answers report (WAR), see ascriptions have worked hard; the company, whose wrongdoer/ing; not wrong-doing staff have worked hard while, not whilst; if while means although, use X the latter X, Y and Z went to Bognor whip whisky, whiskies [Scotch]; whiskey, whiskeys Y [Irish] yah-boo, yah-boo politics whistleblower, whistleblowing yards, with figures: 100yd white paper lc. The full titles of white papers year—in the year 2000 = in 2000 are quoted: “The Health of the Nation”. year in, year out Exercise discretion when titles are “Yellow Pages” abbreviated or run into a sentence. Avoid yes—the answer is yes saying the “The Health of the Nation” white paper; it is enough to say: the “Health of yes-man/woman the Nation” white paper. . . However, if yobbo, yobboes titles are freely summarised, do not give yoghurt the impression—by using capitals—that the yuppie, yuppies full title has been given. whiz kid Z whole-hearted/ly zig-zag -wide: proper nouns take a hyphen (Scotland- wide, UK-wide), other nouns do not

general 26