Last week I was approached by a reporter from the Cambridge News who wanted my views on Cambridge City Council’s decision to drop apostrophes from new road signs. It was the first I’d heard of this, although I had read about this ruling for other counties. I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that Cambridge was to follow suit.
From a business point of view, I don’t follow news about council committee meetings, but perhaps I should. Had I been aware of this in 2011, when the idea of omitting apostrophes from Cambridge signs was first proposed, I would have objected, as would many others. As it was, there was one recorded objection, which I find incredible for a city such as Cambridge.
The council’s justification for this decision is that the use of apostrophes is confusing for many and, more importantly, that the emergency services are impeded by apostrophes in street names.
I would be among the first to support the efforts of the emergency services and would never claim that grammar and punctuation are more important than people’s lives: however, is this really the case? If apostrophes really were a danger to lives, surely the council would be taking steps to change all street signs, not the half-baked idea of omitting apostrophes from new ones whilst leaving the old ones as they are. I would imagine that having some road names with apostrophes and some without would make the issue even more confusing.
Further to this point, I don’t claim to know which kind of GPS systems the emergency services use, but I have one of the most basic satellite navigation models on the market and have never yet been sent to the wrong street because of a misplaced or missing apostrophe. In fact, I don’t bother putting apostrophes into my search. Just type in Scholars Walk or Kings Parade and you’ll still get to the right place, so why remove them from public road signs?
My final point on the emergency services issue is to inform that the claim appears to be unfounded. When Anglia TV asked the question of the police, the answer was clear: apostrophes do not cause confusion for their navigation systems.
From an educational point-of-view, the decision is contradictory. Whilst politicians bemoan the fact that literacy standards in Britain are falling and that our place on world league tables is far lower than it should be, how can they justify what can only be described as ‘dumbing down’? Primary pupils are being put through their paces with the new spelling, punctuation and grammar test, yet the evidence of where apostrophes should be placed is being removed from the public domain. Having taught for many years, I know that most pupils (and their parents) will decide that there is no point learning something that society deems unimportant.
Linked to this last point is Britain’s international credibility. Foreign tourists flock to cities such as Cambridge, as do business people and scholars, especially now we have our own international airport. What impression are we giving our visitors? We hear enough snide comments about Americanisms creeping into the language and how other English-speaking countries are in some way inferior because of the way they use the English language: do council decision makers not realise that other countries will make similar judgements about us?
If the political rhetoric is to be believed, Britain is rapidly losing any international reputation it had and is falling behind other countries on many fronts, including education. Why reinforce that by implementing this ridiculous idea?
I’m afraid that, in my very humble opinion – but one that I know is shared by the majority – the decision to drop the apostrophe from street signs is merely there to appease those who can’t – or won’t – make the effort to understand how our language works. So, let’s make a stand to keep our apostrophes: not just in Cambridge, but throughout Britain.