Researching a paper for a customer at the moment, I am reading a lot about our country’s “straightened economic circumstances”.  It’s a phrase which has cropped up more than once in different articles and documents. 

I’m interested enough in this apparent bout of moral rectitude but I can’t help but wonder if it shouldn’t be “straitened” …

The Economist Style Guide, as ever, puts it rather nicely:

“The strait-laced tend to be straight-faced.”

Writing