According to an interview in the Financial Times, the previously mild-mannered culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, has been whiling away the time in boring meetings compiling an highly unofficial Little Book of Bollocks (clearly modelled on the popular Little Book of Calm).
Ms Jowell is honest enough to admit she's not been averse to a little bit of "stakeholder" terminology herself in the past. She tells the paper: "I have what I call a little book of bollocks where I just sit in meetings and I write down some of the absurd language – and we are all guilty of this, myself included. The risk is when you have been in government for eight years you begin to talk the language which is not the language of the real world."
Ms Jowell goes on to cite "reproofing expenditure, sustainable eating in schools, regional cultural data feedback rollout, strategic objectives for evaluation and weaning the profile". As ever, the inimitable Simon Hoggart put it best in a sketch earlier this month.
The Plain English Campaign says her example might "give others the courage to speak out against gobbledegook" and has even asked her to pass on her contributions for their Golden Bull awards.
My pet gripes don't appear on Ms Jowell's list, but just for the record, they are: "best practice" (always without a preceding definite article, usually followed by the dread intransitive verb "roll out"); the use of "community" to define any grouping of people (most ridiculous example in recent memory being the "skydiving community"), and, as the Guardian style guide is strenuously fighting a rearguard action to stamp out, the use of "government" also without a definite article.
Any particular teeth-grinding, toe-curling, temperature-raising bugbears, please post below.
