Lee Taylor has had enough of political jargon and PR spin. He urges UK politicians of all persuasion to wake up and see the writing on the wall.  

The first time most Japanese people heard the voice of their Emperor was on August 14^th, 1945. In a radio broadcast from the imperial palace he announced Japan’s intention to surrender, famously commenting that, “the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage”.

From today’s perspective Emperor Hirohito’s remark sounds ridiculous, even faintly amusing. But he was far from the first and by no means the last to use language in this way.

At the other end of the scale we have the recent demise of Sam Allardyce, the England football manager. Caught in a newspaper ‘sting’ by agreeing to work for a far eastern company and passing on information about how to circumvent the FA’s rules on transfer dealings, Allardyce described his behaviour as a ‘misjudgement’. His misjudgement, if it can be called that, was in not realising he was being duped by journalists from the Daily Telegraph.

By calling his actions a misjudgement Allardyce seemed to be asking the public to believe his decision to accept the £400k was a momentary aberration, something he would have never contemplated if he had paused to think. In reality, of course, Allardyce fooled no one. He clearly knew exactly what he was doing, having been in football management for over twenty years. Even though he was on an annual salary of £3m and only days into his new position, he saw what he thought was some easy cash and he grabbed at it.

The Football Association were equally keen to draw a veil over the affair. They did not sack Allardyce for breaking the rules; his departure was ‘by mutual consent’. The language used was that of a gentlemanly disagreement brought to an honourable conclusion, rather than the removal of a greedy man caught with his hands in the till. All to avoid the embarrassment of speaking the unvarnished truth.

The use of vague language and euphemisms as a smokescreen is ever present and growing. In the City appalling performance or financial results are regularly described as a ‘disappointment’ or ‘falling short of expectations’. It’s as if they want us to believe that the company has suffered a small, rather insignificant setback. Nothing to worry about.

Most galling of all to me, terrible, often fatal mistakes are airbrushed into the past. After horrendous goings on in social services departments, health authorities, police forces, schools, even theme parks, a spokesman will express regret and sympathy for those who have suffered before hurriedly moving on to reassure the public that ‘robust measures’ are in place and such things could never happen now. Indeed, the word ‘robust’ has become a shorthand for anticipated effectiveness. The implication is that there would really be no point in raking over the past, apportioning blame and holding people to account for what has happened. That would be rather petty, wouldn’t it? After all, you can’t change history. The past is, at a stroke, deemed no longer relevant. Far better to learn lessons, be positive, look to the future.

Except that often lessons aren’t learned. It is rare for the whole truth to be uncovered.  For the families of the Hillsborough victims it took thirty years.

But does it matter that language is being devalued in this way? I think it does.

Given the impoverishment of political discourse, is it any wonder that people are attracted to the blunt statements of Trump, Farage and others? At least they speak their mind, or seem to. They don’t obscure what they mean with political jargon. They don’t hide behind concepts the ordinary Joe doesn’t understand, like multiculturalism and globalisation. When Trump declares that he’s going to build a wall to keep out illegal Mexican immigrants you know exactly what he means. You can see it in your mind’s eye. Even if you don’t agree with the idea, a wall is real. It’s not a ‘robust approach’, it’s bricks and mortar.

UK politicians of all persuasions need to wake up to this issue. The disconnect between them and the electorate, so evident in the Brexit vote, is widening. And that disconnect is at least in part about communication, or the lack of it. Not only are politicians not listening, even when they have something valid to say they’re often not speaking in a language that people can understand. Plenty of commentators have argued that political debate needs to deal with more than generalities and ideology; only by debating the concrete, what things mean in practice, do politicians have a chance of getting through to those they purport to serve. Many issues that politicians are dealing with are complex but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t capable of explanation or that we shouldn’t try to talk about them intelligibly. Is that message getting across? Is it being taken seriously?

If not, the writing may be on the wall, a real one.

Lee Taylor is a writer and former adman.  

Photo by Michał Grosicki on Unsplash