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“Without prejudice” is a commonly used legal expression, particularly when parties are negotiating an out-of-court settlement or wish to prevent certain communications from later being used in proceedings in a way that could prejudice their position.

It is an expression I have fully embraced over the past couple of years.

More specifically, I became rather fascinated by it when one individual decided to place it prominently at the beginning of our correspondence, despite there being no obvious legal purpose for doing so. Its main function appeared to be adding a certain level of pomposity to the communication.

I say this not only because he later attempted to rely on those same communications in legal proceedings, but also because the opinion he appeared to hold of me was, quite literally, rich in prejudice.

The entire performance felt heavily seasoned with hypocrisy, and his choice of words was, in my view, rather unfortunate.

More broadly, within the social and economic environment in which we are fortunate enough to spend our lives, a person with his principles and political views could quite easily become a highly prejudiced character.

Regardless of all that, I adopted the expression in all its formality, irony and grandiloquence. I particularly enjoy placing it immediately before saying something controversial, politically incorrect or likely to provoke disagreement.

It adds an edge.

You are perfectly entitled to disagree with me. I do not particularly care.

In my Italian mind, it works as the perfect sophisticated, slightly unusual and deliberately overdramatic joke.