‘What we have to facilitate is a bottom-up approach.’
In Competition No. 2464 you were invited to provide a specimen of ministerial waffle.
‘What we have to facilitate is a bottom-up approach.’ When I heard those words come out of the mouth of Ruth Kelly (could she really have been Secretary of State for Education?), I knew we had a competition. I am grateful to Virginia Price Evans for drawing my attention to ‘bafflegab’, defined in Chambers as ‘the professional logorrhoea of many politicians, officials and salespeople, characterised by prolix, abstract circumlocution and/or a profusion of abstruse technical terminology used as a means of persuasion, pacification or obfuscation.’ Dr Johnson rides again! The prizewinners, printed below, get £25 each, and the bonus fiver goes to Peter Gasson for a nice piece of balderdash.
This government is committed to reform of public services to match the best in the world, and as a minister I am personally passionate about achieving this goal.
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