The British Plain English Campaign is invading at least one workplace.
The grammar police are attacking the, uh, police.
The Plain English Campaign (PEC) is an independent group fighting for plain English in public communication in Britain. The group opposes gobbledygook, jargon and legalese.
Among their latest targets are police agencies. Corporate-speak such as “end games” and “mission statements” have invaded. PEC has christened this police-speak as “ploddedygook,” named after British slang for a police officer (plod).
One police force changed the name of its control room to “Citizen Focus Command.” Another refers to crime victims as “customers.”
Customers?
“Hello, may I help you?”
“I’d like to order some crime.”
“Would that be petty or supersized?”
“Will the supersized take longer?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“Then just give me a small order of petty crime – to go.”
So the collective known herein as HR Blunders would like to laud our fellow literary originators at PEC for their crusade to obliterate obtuse phraseology from the orbitting mass known as Earth. We extend our assistance in the quest to eviscerate argot and cant from our common tongue.
