English language again

Two interesting examples of the use of English again yesterday.

One was on Midweek - Libby Purvis, who is normally very good with the language, use the term ‘bookend’ as a verb - meaning something that occurred at the start and end of a programme. I have a teacher friend with whom I exchange e-mails when we find one of these new verbs - we call it verbing. A recent one that has now entered the language is to showcase. My ’80s OED has this as a noun only but the online Cambridge dictionary does have this as a verb. Some of these verbed nouns (sorry!) do add to the language but to bookend?

Much worse than this was an example of meaningless jargon on Today. The item was about teenage pregnancy but the content was almost incomprehensible - in an interview later in the programme, Simon Jenkins said of the piece "... you couldn’t get him to speak English, he lives in Whitehall and he speaks Martian..." I often find I’m criticising the Young Enterprise students for writing content-free reports: "we split into groups and thought of ideas for products, then we picked the best few and discussed these. We then reported back and decided on the best product" What was the product? Why did they choose it? What was rejected? Why? Politicians, particularly, are good at using apparently significant words which when analysed are meaningless: "we’ll learn the lessons and go forward with a robust response"

The teenage pregnancy speaker spoke about having a good strategy but some areas are not putting all the elements of the strategy together. He talks about the absence of a strategic champion for the strategy. When pressed, he explains this champion as someone working at a senior enough level where they can ensure that the strategy is effectively embedded in local structures within the local strategic partnership, whatever that means.

Listen to the full interview here - could you understand it?