What’s not to like

The Spectator on Emma Thompson and contemporary English

Was Emma Thompson right to berate a group of schoolgirls this week for saying ‘like’ and ‘innit’? Many Spectator readers would, we imagine, have cheered her on. It is annoying the way today’s teenagers pepper their speech with ‘like’ and put ‘innit?’ at the end of each sentence.

But if Miss Thompson is determined to improve articulacy, she is attacking the wrong target. After all, English is mistreated in many other more pernicious ways — and by adults, not children. Look at what ‘management speak’ is doing to the mother tongue. It is common today to hear grown-ups using impact as a verb — ‘The recession is impacting our profit margins’ — and adding going forward at every opportunity in order make themselves sound progressive. Modern businessmen (and women) also now say ‘touch base with’ when they mean ‘speak to’, and even talk about ‘pre-preparing’ things. The list of horrors can be extended indefinitely.

Perhaps the most depressing thing is that management speak is no longer restricted to managers. Ed Miliband, the new Labour party leader, may ‘speak human’, but — as Dot Wordsworth notes on page 16 — he doesn’t always speak English. He says ‘commit’ when he shouldn’t, and insists on introducing each point with ‘Let’s be honest’. Before we start picking on adolescents, we should examine the language of our leaders. Innit?