IF you ever need a reminder of how often you hear received pronunciation in the UK media, it’s how many people seem to struggle when they’re presented with anything other than the Queen’s English.
When it’s not people joking that they need subtitles when a Scottish MP speaks in the Commons or folks insisting those tweeting in Scots speak “proper English”, it seems the people of Wales are not immune either.
A Sky News tweet earlier today appeared to misreport Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford as calling for a “formation approach” – but we’re pretty sure he said a “four-nation” approach.
Drakeford had been asked if the UK’s four nations will decide to ease lockdown restrictions together, but told Sky News it had been a “struggle” to get the Government to engage.
He said he supported a four-nation approach to easing restrictions, saying: “The four nations of the United Kingdom took the decision to go into lockdown on the same day and with the same measures in place and my preference is to come out of lockdown in the same way.”
"I'm in favour of a formation approach."
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) April 29, 2020
First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford is asked if the UK's four nations will decide to ease the lockdown together - but he says it's been a "struggle" to get the UK government to "engage".https://t.co/2ab80AvUjr pic.twitter.com/kj1wV0rglJ
Unfortunately his references to those four nations were not enough to clarify his phrasing for the person typing up the tweet – as somebody in the comments replied, what exactly is a “formation approach” anyway?
Times writer Kenny Farquharson tweeted: “I think he said ‘four nation’, not ‘formation’. Bit of an accent issue, there.”
Another writer, Scott Hames, replied with a link to Beyonce’s song Formation. It would certainly be interesting if the pop star had been singing about the UK’s four nations.
Sky News has been approached for comment.
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