And, as we know, Johnson wanted to F-business - perhaps he should have heeded the other, no drinking sign, as well? :-) I'm sure that's not the only occasion it's been used by the government, and I seem to remember BBC TV News issuing apologies for strong language when Cummings appeared before a HoC Committee! It's interesting as the tolerance to swearing varies but they are only words and I think it depends on context. When I was doing my PGDip one of the people I was hanging around with was an Iraqi guy. He was intelligent, spoke and wrote good English and had worked as a management consultant in the UK (he and his English wife had had to leave a high standard of living in Iraq in the 1980s where he was an engineer as he'd made some unguarded comments about Sadam at the country club where he and his wife went for drinks); however, when he was making a point outside of seminars or lectures he would punctuate every sentence liberally with the F word. To him it was just a sort of exclamation mark but I'd guess he'd found out when he was learning English that it got people's attention? Just like Johnson and Cummings?
Michael Ixer ● 1237d