Might is Right

One of my regular haunts takes the Financial Times on Saturdays, which is a bit unusual as it is a bar with a mainly French-speaking clientele. I had always scorned the FT on the grounds that I imagined it to be a capitalist rag but over the past few years I have come to realise it is the best newspaper in the UK along with the Guardian. In fact at times it is even better than the Grauniad because there is less predictability in both its editorial line and in most of the copy published. As well as carrying that superlative football writer Simon Kuper (a neighbour of mine and with whom I played Saturday morning football until laziness and apathy sunk their claws in), it also has excellent film and arts coverage, not to mention their coverage of current affairs. The week before last there was a brilliant lengthy article by their Jerusalem bureau chief Harvey Morris on the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War and the Saturday Arts & Weekend supplement this week had this lovely piece by Harry Eyres on the decline of the use of the word 'might' in British official discourse, and the unsuitability of 'may' to fill the gap as many people intend it to. The site needs registration but it is worth taking the 15-day free option to have a look around.