"..., who currently pay him ..."

[Odessa Dawn]

​

"This is a departure from Mr Blair's recent public engagements, which have focused more on the religious community. It is, however, perhaps more in tune with his employment by the government of Kazakhstan, who currently pay him £8 million a year to whitewash their human rights record."

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Who refers to what? If who refers to the government of Kazakhstan, do we need to add s to the verb pay?
​

 

[Chicken Sandwich]

If who refers to the government of Kazakhstan, do we need to add s to the verb pay?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

"Government" is a collective noun. It can be used with either a singular or plural form of the verb.

 

[Odessa Dawn]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

"Government" is a collective noun. It can be used with either a singular or plural form of the verb.

Thank you, Chicken Sandwich, but I didn't pay attention in which English the newspaper was written.



"In AmE, collective nouns are almost always singular in construction: the committee was unable to agree."
More: Comparison of American and British English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia