If you're expressing a wish then a simple imperfect won't do.
It's called the exhortative subjunctive: would that it were so; be that as it may; let there be cake, etc. I've been wracking my brains to think of an example of where "if it was" would be correct, because I'm sure I've heard one at some point in the past, but I've been drawing a blank so far. If you want to find peace, just adopt a Northern accent and say "I wish it were Thursday, our Kes."
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Tue 10 Jan 2012, 21:47, 1 reply)

This is dead good and interesting, I believe you take the prescriptive stance on this?
However, I shall take the descriptive grammarian's path on this occasion as I'm a bloody Southerner and won't have any of that odd Northern talk.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Tue 10 Jan 2012, 21:53, closed)

I do indeed, if only for clarity's sake.
There are times when using the right mood genuinely makes your sentence easier to understand. It's nothing snobbish, though; I remember a friend of mine at university who insisted on making a spoken distinction between the two, and on saying "They were" but "If only that 'wear' the case". He was generally thought of as a twat.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Tue 10 Jan 2012, 22:07, closed)

This then-
justifies your initial comment and I concede that my usage of "was" was ungainly, although I will defend my position by stating that "was" is interchangeable with "were" in the common vernacular in this case. Flimsy ground, thin ice, perhaps; yet many's the case won on a small point of interpretation.

As you was.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Wed 11 Jan 2012, 0:49, closed)