It’s a few days after lockdown restrictions have been eased in England and people have taken to the parks in numbers.
They’ve met-up with friends and family and they’ve drunk a few cans and eaten a few barbeques.
The aftermath has been piles of rubbish.
On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Monday morning a guest from a national charity spoke how this scene was ‘unacceptable’ and it got me thinking – yet again – about how we settle for euphemisms.
They are ‘concerned.’
They are ‘worried.’
The action is ‘regrettable.’
Football managers are ‘delighted’.
Strikers are ‘gutted’ to miss the penalty.
In a committee, these words are code that soften the blow of fierce criticism. In public they are dreadful words that pull punches.
When I was a reporter I used to be asked by a news editor what I meant when I wrote a particularly wordy paragraph. When I translated it into plain English I was then asked to write that instead.
It’s long since time we worked out what we actually mean and then write that instead.
Well said!