To the undoubted dismay of pedants worldwide, it seems the war against the misplaced, omitted or unwanted apostrophe has been lost. The Apostrophe Protection Society, founded in 2001 to campaign for the proper use of the punctuation mark, is no more. Its founder, John Richards, 96, declared at the weekend that he was ending his crusade. Or, rather, surrendering. 'With regret I have to announce that after some 18 years, I have decided to close the Apostrophe Protection Society,' he declared on his website. 'We, and our many supporters worldwide, have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!'
There have always been types who believe the wrong usage of an apostrophe is indicative of a society in which standards are slipping and civilisation itself is in decline.