Mea Culpa: Europe locks down amid ongoing scenes

John Rentoul on questions of style and usage in this week’s Independent

Jean Castex, the French prime minister, outlines his strategy for tackling the ‘ongoing’ pandemic (Getty)

My campaign against “amid” is not going well, amid much shaking of the head. Let me just note the following, though: “Paris goes into lockdown amid soaring Covid cases.” The second part caused the first, so that could be: “Paris goes into lockdown as Covid cases soar.” And it is shorter.

We reported: “Dog owners are more scared of walking their pets now than this time last year amid fears of dognappers.” That is “because of”.

And: “Ocado has revealed a 40 per cent surge in retail sales amid a ‘dramatic and permanent’ shift towards online shopping since the pandemic struck.” That could be “during”.