It is true, there is a BS for writing BSs-it is BS 0. On a point of accuracy, the z style is NOT only North American-it is actually OED!!! The OED rule used to be that if a word had a Greek root, it could ONLY be the Z style. English education is such that most of the English language is Greek to half the population, but they didnt know what was Greek or swahili in root. So, quite a few years ago, OED changed the rule. The current rule is that if there is a choice, the Z should be used; the s style is regarded by OED as a secondary spelling. BS 0 says that the BSI house style is OED (and good thing too). Hence the Zs. Those who hate it hate the OED, which is second on my reading list only to my personal copy of whats wrong with london fire brigade volumes 1-156. Messey, if they bought you a copy of the OED instead of your personal issue of how to be politically correct in 478734734734 easy lessons, this would have been obvious to you. (By the way, i was quite proud of all the Zs in BS 5839-1; indeed, i did a final spellcheck of the final draft to check we didnt have any of those ever so common Ss. You can see Messey, why we Scots have a compulsion to come down here and sort out the problems that flow in the wake of the English education system, cant you.)
