THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACTION AND FRACTION

For some time now the media has been referring to fractions of political parties.


They used factions before which is the correct word. My Funk and Wagnalls dictionary defines faction as " a group of people operating within and often in opposition to, a larger group," while it defines fraction, which differs only by the letter R, as a "disconnected part of anything, a small portion, a fragment."


When the media, in particular the Daily Herald, which is the newspaper I read, uses fraction instead of faction, I know it is purposely done, because if I spell organization with a z the way they do in the US, it is automatically edited to an s. So what exactly are they trying to say?


That every other party is but a disconnected part of another party, rather than a group which is in opposition to that larger group?


Is that a slang as we say on Saint Martin?


Words are very important, and should be used appropriately and in the proper manner.


As I have asked many times before, why should the Daily Herald edit any word I spell in the US fashion? Another thing I have said many times is that we not use British English on Saint Martin or St. Maarten for that manner, if the name needs to be spelled in the proper manner, our great exception being the bonnett,of a car.


And if we used to talk of loos and lorries I would have no proble with their editing.


So what are we, and even more important, what do we want to be?


It is definitely going to be easier to express ourselves in US English, thather than the Queen's English, so we should make up our minds.


I will not say it has us confused as a country, because I am sure that the government knows exactly what it wants, and what it will do to the people to get it.