Years ago, when I was a district judge I found that the spoken language imperfections that irritated me were transatlantic imports into our everyday speech. One was the use of file as an intransitive verb. Even the quality press now refers regularly to filing for divorce, or filing for bankruptcy.

The other came from the advocate who said: 'I will now ask my client to take the stand.' 'Not in this court he won't,' I used to reply, with what I tried to make a winning smile; 'he'll go into the witness box like everybody else'.



Philip Hebbert, retired district judge, IIkley, West Yorkshire