—The notorious UKIP flyer: Suzy’s 15 mins of fame
As explained by the BBC: “A UKIP campaign leaflet went viral for the wrong reasons when it was given the red pen treatment by an English teacher who spotted more than a dozen errors. Suzy Howlett set to work with a red marker pen after receiving the leaflet through her door in Frome, Somerset…”
In her words: “I had heard about the leaflet from friends and my husband brought home a copy and straight away I told him I was eager to take a red pen to it. The part about borders – or boarders – really made me laugh. I took a picture of my work and my children, Lucy and George, were very amused by it. They posted it to their friends, Russell Brand liked it and shared it, and it took off. It even made the hit BBC show Have I Got News for You, which felt rather special!”
Suzy goes on to say that there is absolutely no shame in having difficulties with spelling, grammar and punctuation. “What does put me off it is the thought that either Mr Tanswell doesn’t understand his own weaknesses, or he does but he’s too slapdash and too careless to bother to get someone to proofread them and check for detail. And that makes me think that he perhaps would not be very good at running anything else…”.
- Press coverage: BBC News, Channel 4, Buzzfeed, Guardian, Mirror (and again), Daily Mail – and even India’s Hindustani Times (“…you can no longer trust the English with the English language”)
- Listen to Suzy’s interview for Xpressradio (8 mins) – and also check out her 2015 annual award from the Plain English Campaign (“for her brutal red-pen demolition”).
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