The Oxford comma, again….

​The Oxford comma has again reared ‘its ugly head’ or rather failed to do so, this time in connection with the imminent and much trumpeted departure of the UK from the European Union.
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To mark this auspicious event,  three million coins bearing the slogan ‘Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations’ are due to enter circulation from 31 January, (after the first batch of 1 million coins had to be melted down by the Royal Mint because they featured the original departure date of 31 October).

​However, the lack of a comma after prosperity has been criticised by, among others, ‘His Dark Materials’ novelist Philip Pullman. ’The Brexit 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma, and should be boycotted by all literate people,’ wrote the novelist on Twitter, while Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell wrote that, while it was ‘not perhaps the only objection’ to the Brexit-celebrating coin, ‘the lack of a comma after “prosperity” is killing me’.

The Oxford comma has fierce defenders and equally fierce detractors – in 2011, when it was erroneously reported that the Oxford comma was being dropped by the University of Oxford style guide, one punctuation lover asked: ‘Are you people insane? The Oxford comma is what separates us from the animals.’

Well, well…Oxford comma or no Oxford comma, this news story clearly goes to show that there will still be plenty to argue about post Brexit.

Jenny Moar
Illustration: Øystein Reigem