The Penguin Guide to Plain English

You rely on your horses ability to respond to your commands. But your
horse relies on you too, and your insurance is no exception.
One has to ask no exception to w hat? The w riter seems to assume that
a generalization has been propounded on the subject o f reliance to w hich
not insuring a horse w ould be an exception. It is only by a process of
imaginative detection that one deduces the existence o f this fragile
connection in the w riters mind.
in the event that
An increasingly used construction that is generally better avoided is
introduced by the expression in the event that. It is a rather clumsy way
o f avoiding simple constructions.
In the event of a breakdown or accident in the UK or Europe, help is just a
phone call away.
Since firms are not usually shy of using the second person, one wonders
w hy this did not begin If you have a breakdown or accident in the UK
or Europe. A similar question arises over this advertisement for an
insurance company.
New Disposal cover to help you with the costs in the event that your horse
may lose its life.
In this case the w riter is com mitted to use of the second person, openly
referring to your horse. So w hy not: New Disposal cover to help you
w ith your costs, should your horse lose its life?
least o f all
It is odd that this particular expression gets used w hen its opposite is
required.
Turks and Cypriots will find it difficult to agree about anything on that
divided island, least of all about the current anniversary.
W hat the speaker m eant was that the Turks and Cypriots will find it
especially difficult to agree about the anniversary. If the opening of the
sentence is kept (Turks and Cypriots will find it difficult to agree) then
w hat follows m ust be: most of all about the current anniversary. That
sounds a little clumsy. The better correction w ould be: Turks and