It was a particularly piquant news story: a pub in the Dartmoor village of Belstone decided to the change “ploughman’s lunch” to “ploughperson’s lunch”. Well, you can imagine the ensuing froth, fuss and furore that greeted the decision. Wrote one Charlotte Deakins on social media: “The world is off its rocker and quite frankly I’m sick of it.” Defending the decision, the landlord of the Tors pub, Dicky Harrison, said: “It’s just a bit of fun and a nod to the amazing ladies who work the land here. I didn’t think it would cause offence but in reality women plough too.”
Which got me digging into the origins of the meal. Far from being centuries old, the name seems to have come into being only in the 1950s, when the Cheese Bureau, a marketing body, began promoting it in pubs as a way to increase the sales of cheese, which had recently ceased to be rationed. Fair enough.
Anyway, while the online reaction was entirely predictable, it all smacks of a publicity stunt to me and I suggest that you march with your feet and boycott the Tors for being so shameless.
Another story that caught my eye concerned business jargon and the finding that most office workers who are on the receiving end don’t believe that those who use it know what they’re talking about. Following research from communications firm Enreach, the most loathed term was “blue-sky thinking”. Other contenders for odium were “thinking outside the box”, “low-hanging fruit” and “getting your ducks in a row”. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone use these appalling phrases, except in a heavily ironic way. I’m only sorry that my particular bete noire – “having skin in the game’ – didn’t get a dishonourable mention.
• Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist
