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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Singular very Singular

The prime minister of the country in which I live just said "Sono pronto a modificare la costituzione, anche da solo." that is "I am ready to change the constituion, also by myself." This is grammatically very odd. I'm not sure that such a statement has ever been made in the first person singular -- people who think that they can modify constitutions all by themselves traditionally use the royal we.

Respect for forms (you know hypocricy) would normally make a prime minister claim to speak as a creation and servant of a parliamentary majority. Sad to say, the Italian constitution can be amended by simple marjorities in the house and sentate (which must vote for the change twice on occasions seperated by at least three months) plus a majority in a referendum. However, Berlusconi is not supposed to use the first person singlular when discussing what the parliamentary majority might do.

Yes yes, we all know that he owns the majority like he owns his shoes. We know that he commands and they obey. We also know that he defecates. Silvio, please, just have some decency and stop doing it in public.

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