On Thursday last week, the Times front page headline ran: “Sunak: Better education can be our silver bullet”. The report went on: “A Downing Street source said Sunak believed that if there were ‘one silver bullet in public policy’ that would improve lives, it would be investment in education and skills.” Long-suffering readers may remember that I deplored this solecism many moons ago. Let me quote the Guardian style guide: “Silver bullet: used to kill a werewolf and by the Lone Ranger.” Yet how many times have I heard this phrase trotted out? More than I care to remember. The correct term is magic bullet – “a quick and simple solution to a difficult problem”. For further elucidation, I recommend Beyond the Magic Bullet, by the late, great journalist Bernard Dixon.
A colleague reports that on the Today programme last week, minister Nadhim Zahawi uttered the following: “We have operationalised flights to Rwanda.” He then repeated the word later in the interview. How revolting is that. I’m not sure what his job is at the moment but I think a quick reshuffle is in order.
