More evidence that the worm turns: A positive rebellion is under way in Britain against the worst excesses of crapspeak, that cleverly metaphorical slang that corporate types and bureaucrats like to speak. (You know the guy who must always say "challenges" instead of problems, or "stakeholders" instead of customers; he's proficient in crapspeak.)
Recently, a decree went around to local authorities in England and Wales - town and county councils, mostly - from the body that governs them, forbidding use of a long list of popular crapspeak terms. The Local Government Association sent out a list last week of 100 "non-words" for councils to avoid.
According to The Associated Press, the list exhorted government officials to replace "revenue stream" with income and to avoid cryptic code words such as "coterminosity," meaning an overlap of administrations.
"Stakeholder engagement" can easily be replaced by "talking to people," the chairman of the association said.
