Thursday, 18 March 2010

It's all greek to me

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw (thanks to Rod) that the Local Government Association had published a list of 250 words that local councils and officials should avoid using in public lest they frighten the horses.

New into the Hot 250 this year are the following pieces of gobbledygook:
  • Trialogue 
  • Wellderly 
  • Goldfish bowl facilitated conversation 
  • Tonality 
  • Webinar 
  • Under-capacitated 
  • Clienting 
  • Disbenefits 
These newbies join the following old classics on the proscribed word list:
  • Taxonomy 
  • Rebaselining 
  • Mainstreaming 
  • Holistic governance 
  • Contestability 
  • Predictors of beaconicity 
  • Synergies
What worries me is that local government officers are still using these words in private with each other. If you want to bore yourself to death with the full list of 250 words then click here

Goodnight!

7 comments:

  1. I think Webinar is a valid word (a seminar conducted over the Internet where you can participate live). Otherwise, your shortlist is all gobbledegook as far as I am concerned, XTM.

    Hope the leg is better soon.

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  2. Brilliant, the whole of the public sector is tangled up with incomprehensible words. Just brilliant :) Made me smile

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  3. I am curious about the training courses they no doubt get to learn these words.. and then the further training to unlearn them too !

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  4. My local council phoned me after I blogged a story containing the word " NUMPTY "... and although I pointed them to Wiki... they failed to accept it as a useable word...i think all councils and government departments really are " Numpties "... Goodnigh TM.

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  5. How dare a local authority call you and try to stifle free speech. These numpties don't know their place. For too many years under this government they've been getting above themselves and no longer realise that they are our servants. It's time we hanged a few from lamposts 'pour encourager les autres'!

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  6. Hi XTM!
    A piece from my collection of useless Ozzy information.

    barefoot on the grass roots

    weasel-wordy song to the tune of Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord

    Attributed to Sandy Halley
    Specifically for local pollies and the public service


    Segmentalise your pit face,
    get your network on the ground.
    Plug in your resource-bank,
    integrate it all around.
    Operationalise logistics,
    front-line agencies abound.
    but the people still stay poor.

    Chorus:
    Solidarity forever, solidarity forever, solidarity forever,
    For the people keep us fed.

    Open up your shop fronts.
    Bring your social engineers.
    Concretise your auspice packages,
    Get locals into gear.
    Then mystify your language,
    So the people’ll never hear
    That you aint got a f-----g clue.

    Frame up your submissions
    to consolidate your drop.
    Mobilise key people to put pollies on the spot.
    Then trade-off non vote-catchers for a community garden plot
    to be opened by the Mayor.

    Set objectives in your program
    to keep trendies off the dole,
    the kids are unemployed,
    the oldies’ homes gone down a hole.
    Winter’s setting in, but for us pro’s it’s always Spring.
    For the system keeps us strong.

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  7. LMAO @ the anon poster above .... ;)

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