'Grammatically suspect'

Tony Blair's Labour (take that, AP!) Party is being criticized for its latest slogan: "Britain forward not back."

The Plain English Campaign, a British organization, says it's grammatically suspect.

Plain English Campaign spokesman John Lister said the logo was missing a verb and should read: "Britain forwards not backwards".

He said: "The verb seems to have been abolished by New Labour. It sounds like a grammatical nicety but it means you can put across a message with no specific action in it so you can’t be tied down to anything."

"It should say forwards not backwards just for the sake of linguistic consistency."

Mr Lister added: "I think it is grammatically suspect to say the least. I think it is one step forwards and two steps backwards."

I think the original sucks, and I think the "improvement" isn't much better.

But I love that the question is being raised.

And it just goes to show you that what's correct here (AP style calls for "forward" and "backward," no S on either) can be turned on its head across the pond.

>Labour Slogan 'Grammatically Suspect' [Scotsman.com]