Of course the Oxford Comma issue has no substance - but that is rather the point, there is no substance coming forward, Government has been in abeyance because of an internal leadership issue for one Party, and Parliament will have been on 'holiday' for 3 full months before it reconvenes after the upcoming Party conferences.As far as I’m aware it’s standard practice for ministers offices to send out a steer on how to draft letters for the minister’s signature and also on any preference the minister has for the format of written briefing. This is a storm in a teacup. Sadly the press prefers to focus on such non issues rather than serious policy.
While it is the case that it is (sort of) custom and practice for new Ministers to brief their Department on preferred styles for the Minister's signed communications, Coffey seems to have gone beyond this, addressing the department as a whole and including the UKHSA who are the people who amongst other things deal with pandemics and when eventually given the necessary resources led the UK's COVID19 response.
Of course this may all turn out to be the irrelevance it deserves to be, but at time when the NHS is under huge stress, a new Secretary of State giving the appearance of lecturing highly capable people on minor issues of grammar as the only matter of substance isn't serving to hold a department and the NHS as a whole together. As I said above "tone deaf".
https://themarcet.com/news/therese-coffeys-be-positive-order-angers-uk-health-workers/
"The rubric has angered health workers, many of whom were on the front lines during the Covid pandemic and who now face real-terms pay cuts and added pressures as infection rates are expected to rise over the winter."
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