Tory Talk, not Labour Speak

In a very welcome development Cllr Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Conservative Councillors Association has sent the following message to all Conservative councillors:

Dear Colleagues,

Do your hackles rise, like mine, every time you hear a term such as "place-shaping", "transformation" or "stakeholder engagement"?

As Conservatives, it is time that we had our own vocabulary that normal human-beings can understand rather than Labour-speak from another era.

So, I am asking you take part in a CCA initiative "Tory-talk not Labour-speak". Email [email protected] with the word or phrase you never want to hear again and your Tory-talk alternative or post your examples in the 'Current Talking Points' section of the CCA Forum.

You may have some such as "key lines of enquiry" that you simply never want to see again and should be binned rather than translated. Give us those as well.

We will update you on our new lexicon in our regular CCA email. The most brilliant example will get free CCA membership for a year!

We will publish "Tory-talk not Labour-speak" later in the year so that our residents can understand exactly what we mean when we say something.

I am looking forward to your examples.

Best wishes,

Merrick

The CCA Forum is for members only but Merrick has said he would also be delighted for councillors and non councillors to offer nominations by commenting below. The initiative is a sign of encouragement to Councils to follow the lead of Harrow.

Jargon is disempowering, alienating, leaves people marginalised, adversely impacting stakeholders, key workers and service users. It is inappropriate. A multi disciplinary, fast tracked, top sliced, front loaded, benchmarked approach should be rolled out offering a delivery plan for an impact assessment of getting rid of it.