We was wondering how best to put it

“Me and my family have been sponsoring a child with Plan for many years now.”

These are the purported words of a celebrated actor, quoted on an appeal leaflet issued by the (excellent and praiseworthy) charity 'Plan', which raises funds to promote education for children in some of the poorest countries of the world.

I have a feeling that this may be deliberately dumbed-down wording, perhaps entirely scripted by some PR person who believes that a little popular bad grammar will make the message more acceptable to less literate members of the public. Rubbish. That is a patronising insult. Even if the form “My family and I . . . ” has inappropriate echoes of royal pronouncements, the message would have been just as intelligible in the form “I and my family have been sponsoring a child . . . ” ; or even “Our family has been . . . ” or “My family has been . . . ”

There is a right time and place for “Me and my mates was walking down this road, see”: but a carefully prepared, well designed and otherwise convincing appeal leaflet is not it.

You can find out more about Plan on http://www.plan-uk.org/

We was wondering how best to put it