Mea Culpa: We’re all going on a journey – are we nearly there yet?

Questions of style and usage in last week’s Independent

Tripped up: Rebecca Long Bailey went on a ‘journey’ over Brexit (Getty)

Before the election last month, Rebecca Long Bailey (although she had a hyphen then) said she now favoured a second referendum on Brexit, and admitted she had “been on a journey”. A Blairite friend of mine muttered under his breath: “Not a long enough one.”

Just because Tony Blair called his memoir A Journey is no excuse for further metaphorical uses of the word. We had some silly examples last week, such as the “journey of renewal” being undertaken by national parks; “people’s journey into extremism”; and someone’s “journey from pregnancy to taking her child to pre-school for the first time”.

Time to arrive at the destination and never use it again.