"The Diploma" and other New Labour language crimes

Whenever I get around to writing a guide to Idlish, a large chapter will be devoted to the inanity of the present government. New Labour seems to have no feel for the language and is happy to abuse it at every opportunity. Surprisingly (?) this trend is most noticeable in education. Grant-maintained schools were renamed "foundation" schools despite their having no foundation; many high schools have been misleadingly and confusingly rebranded as "specialist colleges"; and now they've called the new school-leaving qualifications "The Diploma", despite the fact that diplomas, unlike certificates, have traditionally normally been further-education qualifications. The pattern here is clear: take something relatively high-level and grand-sounding and misapply it to the ordinary, everyday stuff that the morons in the Government think will otherwise sound too boring.

Said intentional

I'd forgotten about this piss-poor journalistic device: using "said" instead of inverted commas.

e.g.

Crash into restaurant said intentional

I know headlinese is a clipped form of the language, but it should still make sense.

via TheEmperfect

One out of three ain't bad

Victoria Square, 31 August



New Street, Birmingham, yesterday

Say what?

Zoe Ball says her new TV show proves "you don't have to be a genius to be Britain's best brain."

Silly Oak

Spotted in Selly Oak, Birmingham...



I can just about understand the concept of a "non-fault accident" (which I guess means "non-YOUR-fault accident") but how on earth do you manage an accident??