Brighton and Hove City Council Press Officer Belinda Nash may have a degree in political correctness but she does not appear to have one in English grammar.

Full marks then to The Argus editor, Simon Bradshaw, for correcting the words of Councillor Ken Bodfish (The Argus, November 14).

I suppose it would have satisfied Ms Nash if the councillor had been reported as saying "It's a braver soul than I who can brace him or herself against..." but most people would find this cumbersome.

It has long been the convention that the masculine pronoun implies the feminine where the context dictates. In fact, many Acts of Parliament open with a note to this effect.

This situation comes about because the English language, for all its versatility, lacks a third person singular pronoun of the common gender so we are stuck with the masculine "he, him, his" and the feminine "she, her, hers".

If Ms Nash wishes to contribute something to "21st Century language", perhaps she could invent some common gender third person singular pronouns.

I offer the following: heesh, shim and hersh.

-Peter EH Bailey, Brighton