In this week’s Gossage Gossip, our columnist discusses their confusion at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s recent statement, considering the MP’s long-standing commitment to the correct use of the English language.
Much has been written about the appropriateness of appointing Jacob Rees-Mogg as the Cabinet Minister in charge of energy policy. Because of the rotundity of the language he deploys, he has frequently been described as “just visiting from the eighteenth century.” Long immaculately dressed in clothes of his great grandfather’s time, he has always been meticulous in the precision with which he uses erudite English words, avoiding colloquial slang on all occasions.
So, what are we to make of his contribution to a press release issued by Number 10 concerning the decision to make future taxpayers pay large chunks of your and my home fuel bill this winter. In it, Mr Rees-Mogg is quoted accusing Russian President Putin of ‘weaponising’ the supply of energy.
Weaponising? Weaponising? In no dictionary of the English language can this improbably vulgar new ‘noun-into-verb’ word be found. What could have happened to Mr Rees-Mogg? Is he changing his famous precise use of vocabulary overnight, to celebrate running energy policy? Or are No 10 simply putting the new-fangled words that Liz Truss might choose to deploy into her colleague’s mouth? If so, what sort of dangerous precedent is this new Prime Minister setting?