mercredi 14 août 2013

English comprehension

In today's news we have a story about a will by which an old lady left half a million quid to either the government or some political party:




Quote:








The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are facing questions after the parties received a large donation from an elderly woman in her will.



The coalition parties shared £520,000 bequeathed by Joan Edwards because it was understood her will said it should go to "whoever was in government".



The Daily Mail says it has seen Ms Edwards' will and reports that it made no reference to any political party.



There has been no complaint from the will's executors.



Lousy drafting, but what did she intend? To my eye, she cannot have meant 'the government' because the government is always in government. OTOH we frequently refer to political parties as being 'in office' 'in power' or 'in government'.



What do the forum will-writers think?



[Word of free advice - never write your own will unless you actually want to have your estate wasted in litigation and always use a real solicitor, not a will-writer, as it's dirt cheap and the solicitor is insured up to the eyeballs if s/he screws it up.



In my articles, I recall reading a home-made will which left a gift 'to heart' and another 'to brain' probably meaning charities devoted to heart/brain disease. Trouble is there's more than one of each kind and they all wanted the money and were willing to argue about it.]





via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=263760&goto=newpost

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