Is good grammar still important?

On the way to Weston-Super-Mare I was thinking about grammar. I mean, what else would you think about on a long car journey?

I have always been a bit of a grammar pedant. Certainly in my own writing, and while I might not actually correct others' I do so in my head. 

I don't know the correct terms to use but I know how to use them. Well, mostly. When I speak it's a different matter. I get flustered and don't think about what I want to say so words tend to come out of my mouth as anagrams or whatever the sentence equivalent is. 

But does it matter?

Shock! Horror! I flap my hands in the way of a Victorian lady who has seen something nasty in the woodshed. And then I think some more.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, twit of the grandest order, on being given a role in Johnson's cabinet, issued a set of rules for his staff on what was and was not permissible grammarly-wise. He was roundly mocked but his rules stand.

The conclusion I had already reached (on the way to Weston) was that the correct use of grammar is important when it clarifies what you saying, and less important on other occasions. (Although I still have to fan myself when I say that.). 

For example, the other day I was listening to a song on the radio and silently correcting the singer. Actually not so silently: I kept over-singing him. The song was called, 'If I was';  it should be, 'If I were.' But it doesn't make any difference to the meaning. Pedants might insist that it does but we all know what he means. 


So, I would suggest that the rules don't always matter. They are important but it's the clarity of the sentence that is most vital. If you're not sure of the rules try reading the sentence in the blue box aloud as it is written not as you understand it.

In conclusion, I looked up an article on 10 Wrong Ways to Use Commas. I disagreed with the first one on the list and stopped reading in disgust. So either I don't know as much as I thought I did or the author's a twit too.