The Right Dishonourable

It is often so easy to mock ‘inclusive’ word guidelines that it can feel unsporting. Lately the BBC reported the release of such rules for the University of Manchester, highlighting the instruction against the use of ‘mother’ and ‘father’

Poe’s law has clearly broken out of the internet, and one sometimes wonders if these guidelines are the work of Ron Swanson fans trying to destroy redundant HR departments from within. Another plausible explanation is that there is a long campaign to send copy editors insane, which would only take a push.

‘Words have power’ is a common sentiment among public life’s scribblers, as well as many of its participants. One sense in which this is true is that they give solidity to what George Orwell termed “pure wind” in his famous essay about political language.

The distinction between abstract and concrete promises is the subject of a piece in UnHerd today by the writer Zachary Hardman. Citing Orwell and others, Hardman argues that politicians’ increasing focus on the abstract has untethered our politics from people’s lives.