Gove the grammar pedant

Seemingly far from worried about delivering his first make-or-break public address - with an already less than adoring crowd of lawyers ready to pounce - Gove had plenty of time to prepare a comprehensive list of grammar rules for his civil servants to follow.

The justice secretary posted his edict to the worker ants at 102 Petty France, telling them to write 'make sure' instead of 'ensure' and not to use 'impact' as a verb.

Gove also instructed staff to spell out contractions, so that 'don't' becomes 'do not', avoid unnecessary capitalisations, and never start a sentence with 'however'.

However, even Gove has been unable to maintain his own incredibly high grammar standards. The Independent on Sunday found that, while working as journalist for The Times, several pieces penned by the justice secretary had sentences that started with 'however'.

One can imagine the Sunday Indy scoop sent Gove into a proofing frenzy as he polished his maiden address as Lord Chancellor, no doubt fearful he may have inadvertently fallen foul of his own strict rules.

Yet it was more the substance of Gove's speech, rather than its presentation, that riled many lawyers across the country, who have spent weeks fretting over how he intends to oversee the Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) cuts to legal aid and necessary reforms of the court system.

Gove has form when it comes to grammar pedantry as his infamous '10 golden rules' email, sent in 2013 when he was education secretary, shows.

Lawyers will be hoping Gove's grammar rule book is the only thing he brings with him from his time at the Department of Education, lest we end up with the courts run like a certain 'free schools' policy.

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