Translations of what politicians are saying

SOME years ago, I came across Politics and the English Language, a 1946 essay by George Orwell.

It presents an argument about what he saw as the abuse of language, and politicians were prominent in his criticism.

Take this sentence for example: “Political language has to consist largely of euphemism, questionbegging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”

He goes on to give examples of this abuse, such as the bombing of villages being described as “pacification”. (Years after Orwell’s essay, the American military used the phrase “collateral damage” to describe the deaths of civilians during such bombing raids.)

While Orwell’s tone seemed a little too strident for me, I thought his overall argument was very sound.

Since 2019, I have been struck by how often I seem to spot abuse of language by our government.

I thought, therefore, I would pick a few examples and copy Orwell (sadly, without his grasp of language) by suggesting what a translation might look like:

The Prime Minister, May 2020: “We have growing confidence that we will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world-beating.”

Translation: “I haven’t got a clue if it will work but world-beating should fool them.” (Oh dear, £37 billion later...).

Sam Monaghan’s powerful letter about the 2019 promise to reform social care (Mailbox, June 23) gave us another example.

Translation: “Promises don’t cost anything and people soon forget them.”

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, April 2021: Explaining proposals to halve HE funding for music, because that and the arts are not “strategic priorities”.

Translation: quite difficult, as usual for this politician, but something like: “Strategic always sounds impressive, and very few will notice..”

Music contributed £5.8 billion to the UK economy in 2019, as well as making major contributions to our mental and physical health.

Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade, May 2021: “This is a major milestone for global Britain” when announcing the trade deal with Australia.

Translation: “We estimate it will increase the UK economy by 0.02 per cent over 15 years, but that won’t impress.”

Lord Frost, a Cabinet Office minister accused the EU in June 2021 of being “legal purists” over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Translation: “The EU wants us to follow the rules that we agreed to.” (“Officer, I’m only 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, you’re being a legal purist.’”)

And I have not mentioned a bus travelling the country in 2016 with a large amount of money promised on the side...

Les Gallop, Syston