The 2008 Lexicon

CENTRE FOR POLICY STUDIES

57 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL

December 2007

PREFACE

"Political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." - George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language", 1946

Politicians have always manipulated language, often motivated by the desire to create a sense of activity and purpose and thereby to justify their existence. And the language of bureaucracy has long provided a convenient disguise for government action, or inaction.

But New Labour has taken this disguise to new heights. In its desire to be seen to be solving every problem, and by the huge expansion of its public relations machinery, this Government has - whether wilfully or unwittingly - blurred the line between words and actions. Talking about a problem has come to mean the same as doing something about it. Newspeak has blossomed as a result.

As this Lexicon demonstrates, euphemism, avoidance and vagueness have come to dominate Government announcements, ministers' speeches and every kind of government publication. This is more than a superficial problem of communication. Familiar words have in many cases been drained of their original meaning. Others have come to mean their opposite. This corruption of language has infected all political parties, is endemic in public services, and is rapidly spreading into the media.

Contemporary Newspeak is a lethal blend of management-speak (strategic framework, benchmark, best practice), therapy-speak (holistic, empowerment, closure) and postmodernism (narrative, cultural shift, "truth"). The result, too often, is hollow obfuscation.

Apart from providing an illusion of success where little or nothing has been achieved, Newspeak can be a convenient refuge from difficult subjects. The word 'migrant', for example, no longer refers to a person leaving the country, or moving from place to place, but to a person coming to live here. Avoiding the word "immigrant" helps to obscure the political problems surrounding the influx of a large number of new residents. Children who no longer live with their families are officially (and clumsily) described as "looked-after children", yet the evidence suggest that they are the least likely to be looked after properly. "Institutional" has become a pejorative term denoting unwitting prejudice ("institutional racism") rather than a recognition of a set of established, generally positive, values. The use of disguise saps our ability to discuss subjects openly; it also sows confusion and impedes practical solutions.

To quote from Orwell's essay again: "If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

Newspeak also makes people more apathetic about the possibility of better governance. Becoming ever more cynical about the ability of politicians to mean what they say, the voter is inclined to treat all public utterances with contempt.

The purpose of this Lexicon is not to engender further scepticism, however, but to arouse a desire for plain speaking in politicians and to encourage its readers to think twice before adopting - and thereby accepting - Newspeak.

It is also intended, quite simply, to entertain, and to stimulate further contributions for future editions. Your comments and additions are warmly welcomed. Please write with any further ideas to the Centre for Policy Studies at 57 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Jill Kirby
Director
December 2007