March 2010

Today is budget day in the UK. Also known as ‘we’re going to screw you just a bit more and hope you don’t notice’ day. In honour of the occasion, here are a few of the most annoying words and phrases that politicians insist on using. How many will we hear today, I wonder? Right and proper… Full and frank discussion… Look… Going forward… Listen… To be fair… Let’s be...

What with the 2054th anniversary of the death of Julius Caesar this week (Et tu, Brute?) and London’s mayor Boris Johnson urging state schools to start teaching Latin again, the old language has been in the news saepius sepius (frequently). Boris even went as far to say "I firmly believe that we must not starve the minds of students eager to...

This blooper was spotted in the Arsenal programme for this week’s big match against Porto. (We won 5-0 since you ask. What? Oh you didn’t ask.) Fantastic cause. (Great Ormond Street Hospital). Amazing Football Club. But rotten old punctuation. Remember: Child in singular. Children is plural. Anything belonging to children is children’s....

This is the second part of my interview with Andy Maslen. (Read part one here where Andy reveals the inspiration for his latest book, what he really thinks about content mills and why he proofreads his tweets.) TI: So tell us a bit more about your background Andy. How did you get into this copywriting malarkey? AM: I was booted out of...

I’m a little giddy about this month’s interview. I’m delighted to be joined by copywriting expert/god/guru Andy Maslen, who’s also a well-known speaker, coach and author. During our conversation we discussed everything from Andy’s latest book and the future of copywriting to content mills and Andy’s goal-setting paperclip system! We talked for a while. So part two of this interview is...