Mea Culpa: Boris Johnson doubled down and upped the stakes

A reader has been in touch about the phrase “double down”. He saw it in The Independent several times last week, “none of them in the original blackjack sense”. I know little about the card game, so I looked it up, and doubling down means doubling your bet and asking for a single extra card. It is, therefore, a decision to stay in the game and to raise the stakes.

So I think its use as a metaphor is justified. It is generally used to refer to conduct that adds to the offence originally caused. In an editorial last week, for example, we said the prime minister was “unrepentant about using intemperate language, doubling down on describing the Benn Act … as the ‘surrender act’”.

If you were being pedantic – perish the thought – you might say that Boris Johnson was merely repeating a phrase that annoyed people, rather than raising the stakes by adding new inflammatory material.

But I think that it can be said that simply repeating the offending phrase – when he might be expected to moderate his language – was, figuratively, a raising of the stakes.

The phrase may be over-used, but I think it has a specific meaning that is not easily conveyed so briefly, and which reflects its origin in the rules of a game, even if most British people have probably never played it.

Icon watch: John Schluter writes to note a striking use of the word “iconic”. In a rugby report, we said: “Four years on from their iconic, historic win over South Africa, Japan showed that they remain a force to be reckoned with.” This adds nothing to the word “historic” – in fact, by trying too hard, it might even take something away.

Roll out the metaphor: I have written about hurricanes barrelling before. But they are still doing it. We reported last week: “Meteorologists have warned of wet and windy conditions as Lorenzo continues to barrel towards the UK.”

Thanks to Mick O’Hare for pointing out, again, that this is the wrong metaphor for a hurricane, because the axis of rotation of a barrel is horizontal, whereas that of a storm is vertical.

Still, it’s just a metaphor, isn’t it, so perhaps it doesn’t matter. I am more offended by “wet and windy conditions”. What we mean is rain and strong winds, so why don’t we say that?

Piped musicians: In an article about Zimdancehall, a spinoff of Jamaican dancehall music, we wrote about a studio called Chillspot Records. “Chillspot has enabled a steady pipeline of Zimdancehall rappers, including Mamhare, to escape their rough neighbourhoods through achieving national fame.” In this sentence, Chillspot is the pipeline, and the rappers are a steady flow of talent passing through it.