Whilst there’s no denying that racism still exists in Britain, it is fair to say that by and large, racism is now considered socially unacceptable. Except, that is, racism against one particular group – and no, I don’t mean people with ginger hair: An emergency notice has been served on an illegal gipsy camp, which [...]
Over here in Ladywood, if it wasn’t for the televised party leaders’ debates, we wouldn’t actually know there’s an election going on. Barely any posters can be seen (I’ve seen just two, in the same site on Summer Row), there have been no cars driving around with megaphones, few of us have had any leaflets [...]
“Wellderly, webinar, disbenefits and under-capacitated are among new forms of jargon being used by the public sector, a survey has revealed. Such impenetrable phrases are on a list of banned words published by the Local Government Association (LGA)”. It seems to have become a new biennial news story about office jargon, especially in councils: Why [...]
Birmingham’s Big Weekend – Artsfest – is over for another year. An estimated 270,000 people attended an eclectic mix of music events, craft demonstrations, theatre groups, film shorts, and dance performances, both organised as part of the official festival and spontaneously occuring on the street. artsfest 2009 from simon gray on Vimeo. Although the festival [...]
“Local councils have been warned over a slew of jargon that baffles ordinary people, but why do they love to obfuscate?” Erm, well, the sad fact is by and large councils don’t love to obfuscate; it’s in nobody’s interest to. Now of course there’s no denying that jargon does get out to the public, and [...]
“Hundreds of homeowners deterred from having dropped kerbs fitted outside their homes because of the sky-high council cost have been thrown a lifeline” – what’s happenning is the council’s monopoly on doing the work is going to be ended, and people will be able to choose from a list of 11 preferred contractors to do [...]