The enormity of it
By now the Apostle Peter Jenkins is so car- ried away by the occasion that his command of English deserts him entirely and. he com- mits a splendid solecism: He continues, still on Mr Heath, 'Al the same time he may have felt the enormity of his venture: perhaps at the moment of triumph, he was even a little bit frightened by it.'
Enormity? Presumably the ardent and indeed fanatic marketeer intended Mr Heath to feel the enormousness of his venture. How marvellous it would be if Mr Heath felt in fact what Mr Jenkins surmised he may have felt in fiction, the enormity of the venture.
Eschewing the obsolete and archaic mean- ings and those now regarded as incorrect, the OED defines enormity as 'Deviation from moral or legal rectitude: Extreme or monstrous wickedness. A breach of law or morality; a transgression, crime; in later use, a gross and monstrous offence.'
Indeed, a fine description of what our .Prime Minister was up to in Paris and it's a pity Mr Jenkins did not mean what he wrote.
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