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Mind your language

The weird truth about the word ‘normal’

Praise, insult, sexual euphemism – what an extraordinary range of meaning

10 October 2015

9:00 AM

10 October 2015

9:00 AM

‘Is Nicky Morgan too “normal” to be the next prime minister?’ asked someone in the Daily Telegraph. That would make her abnormally normal, I suppose, at least for a PM. ‘Who and what dictates what is normal?’ asked Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, earlier this year, but, like jesting Pilate, did not stay for an answer.

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