Therese Coffey’s Oxford comma memo is hostile, and a waste of time

Policy comes before silly rules, says Sean O’Grady

Deputy prime minister Therese Coffey has warned her officials about punctuation (PA)

If nothing else, the passing of Queen Elizabeth II after such a long reign reminds us that governments come in all flavours, and that she, like the rest of the nation, lived through good ones and bad.

With hindsight, we can see administrations that were bold and brave, took tough decisions, were compassionate or callous, competent or hopeless, loved or loathed – and sometimes all of those things at the same time.

But the present Conservative administration, dating back to Boris Johnson’s appointment in July 2019 and on into the Truss era, has a strong claim to be the most patronising in modern history.