Birmingham (England’s second-largest city) has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they’re confusing and old-fashioned.

Naturally, not everyone is happy with these changes Yahoo News reports that Marie Clair of the Plain English Society says about the apostrophe “They are such sweet-looking things that play a crucial role in the English language … It’s always worth taking the effort to understand them, instead of ignoring them.” In the same article Lynne Truss the author of the brilliant and funny book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves,” is quoted as saying “Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended,” (but this was not about the council decision in Birmingham)

The BBC reports that John Richards, the founder and chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society, said: “It seems retrograde, dumbing down really.”

Ah, the importance of little things…