Stolen from Gallery News...

Prime Minister Gordon Brown should start his campaign to make English the world's language back home in the UK, says Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester

He told Gallery News, " I am delighted to hear this, but what about Written English and not just Spoken English? In the last Parliament I tabled Questions to every Government Department to request that where there are alternative spellings - labour as in English, or labor as the Americans spell it - then we use the English spelling.

" I got confirmation from every Government Minister that English spelling would be used. However, in society generally the American spelling is taking over - this is happening, I believe, because of speller checks which are programmed to use the American spelling and not the English spelling.

" In other Written Questions I suggested that manufacturers and retailers should be required to have English spelling as the standard. The answers to this were negative. Therefore, if Prime Minister Brown wants English to be the world's language he should start at home by ensuring that industry and commerce in this country are required to ensure that all equipment is programmed to give the English version where there are different ways of spelling a word.

" It would also be helpful if every other organisation in the country followed suit - to recogniSe English spelling and not recogniZe American spelling. "
 

Now look.  We could all very easily make jokes about how impossible this would be to enforce- police checks to ensure people have their Microsoft dictionary set on 'English, UK' not 'English, US' etc.  But I think there is a bigger question here.  What is the point of Bob Russell?  Does he actually contribute anything- not just to Parliament, but to any part of humanity?