Trialogues in goldfish bowls (From The Northern Echo)
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Trialogues in goldfish bowls
6:18pm Friday 12th March 2010 in
The Local Government Association has launched a new crackdown on public sector jargon.
Thank goodness for that. I was at a meeting of Darlington Partnership this week and sat through one session which might as well have been in a foreign language.
The LGA said government departments, local authorities and quangos were all guilty of crimes against the English language.
My personal favourite is the use of the phrase "goldfish bowl facilitated conversation".
An LGA survey also came across a "webinar trialogue for the wellderly" which presumably means a discussion about healthy elderly people.
A "plain English" website has been set up by the LGA to help those in the public sector avoid impenetrable jargon.
LGA chairman Margaret Eaton said: "During the recession, it is vital that we explain to people in plain English how to get access to the services the public sector provides with taxpayers' money."
And so say all of us.
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Alan Macnab says...
4:05pm Mon 15 Mar 10
Another word that is popular in government at the moment is 'procurement' or purchasing and supplies to the layman. In the 1960s it had an entirely different meaning which I will not explain because the Northern Echo is a family newspaper.