Quote Originally Posted by Purple Banana
EDIT: I know this might sound stupid, but it's been bugging me- LIP, in your sig, "Don't steal the government hate competition," should it be 'hates?'

Im not trying to be uppity, it's just the English major coming out in me
PB, often what we Americans would consider a singular subject that takes a singular verb, even though it actually represents a group, will be paired with a plural verb in British English.

"The government hate competition" is one of those examples since, of course, the government comprises lots of ministries and officials.

"The Labour party hate conservatives" might be another example, as would "The British royal family enjoy luxury travel." That's just one of the interesting differences between the Queen's English and ours. LIP was simply writing like a proper Brit up there. This is me responding as a former English teacher and also someone who, during my years of writing for an international corporation, often had to switch between American and British English, depending on which audience I was writing for.