'More people living in Britain'

An unintentionally ambiguous start to a story in today's Metro (under the headline 'We are, in fact, proud to be British'):

More people living in Britain see themselves as British first and foremost - whatever their background.


Is that 'more' as in the majority, or 'more' as in more than before?

The former, according to the rest of the story, although I would have assumed the latter.

4 comments:

Luke Woolliscroft said...

Me too. If it was the former, surely "most" would have been appropriate?

Unknown said...

Agreed. "More" is pretty ambiguous without some sort of qualifier. "Most" would have been impossible to misunderstand.

JD (The Engine Room) said...

I think the confusion arose because the people who saw themselves as "British first and foremost" formed the largest single group, but not an absolute majority. I believe in US English this is called a 'plurality'?

The Ridger, FCD said...

Ah. Yes it is, but I would not have gotten there from the headline.