Somewhere in between, I'd say, Nigel. Now why don't we just agree to ignore each other's linguistic peccadillos,

It's not 'linguistic pecadillos'. It's changing the meaning of something that you're reporting as having been stated elsewhere, and giving it as if it was a fact.
When this is pointed out you hide under "It's a linguistic peccadillo", or "I didn't really mean it" or "it was just whimsy".