‘Predictors of beaconicity’ and other banned jargon
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Local council leaders in the UK have been issued a list of 200 jargon, or specialist, terms that they think should no longer be used when communicating with the public.
With more and more people unsure about their financial futures, councils have realised that they need to be more transparent with their communities. This means that they need to let them know exactly what they’re doing, especially with taxpayers’ money. And they need to let them know in plain English. If someone is about to find themselves in worklessness (that is, unemployed), they should probably be told in words they understand.
The majority of people will have no idea what predictors of beaconicity, coterminosity, conditionality, or double devolution mean. And when the people looking after your money and your town are throwing phrases like this around, you begin to wonder what they’re covering up.
If you think you know what seedbed and coterminous, stakeholder engagement mean to jargon-slinging council types, take the BBC council jargon quiz. I scored a sad 3 out of 7. Check the full list of banned terms (unfortunately without translation into simple English) for more bafflement.
source: BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Councils get banned jargon list.