The Political English vocabulary used by politicians and journalists is a variation of Business English and shares much of the vocabulary.
Politicians and journalists often use expressions and words that no one else would ever use in everyday English. Many of these expressions never appear in English language books or courses. This article covers much of how they write and speak in politics.
POLITICAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Politicians probably use complex vocabulary to try to avoid telling the truth and to try to sound clever. They fail on both counts of course, but continue to try anyway. However, it could all be very confusing for a non-native English speaker.
The word Brexit (British exit from the EU) is one political word now being used by everyone in the UK and Europe of course. After Brexit will we then see Frexit or Grexit (French exit or Greek exit)? Most of the rest of political language is probably incomprehensible to most non-native speakers so let’s have a look at some examples.
EXAMPLES OF POLITICAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Political speech example:
If it’s a general election our politicians start saying strange things like:
“Our political platform going forward will help the squeezed middle and those hard-working families up and down the country who have suffered from the stealth taxes of the previous government. We’re going to cut red tape, reduce the number of quangos and manage the public purse by balancing the books.”
Just what are they on about? What they’re really saying is
“Our strategic policies from this moment and into the future will help those people in low to medium incomes in our country who have suffered from the indirect tax rises of the previous government. We’re going to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and regulation, Quasi Autonomous Non Government Organisations funded by the government and look after the money the government raises through taxation by making sure we don’t spend more money than we have.“
POLITICAL VOCABULARY TRANSLATION
So, most Political English and political speeches are just spin and usually written by spin doctors who promise, for example, to introduce new metrics to improve frontline services which is just a way of saying they are going to do nothing much except talk. They say they have been on the doorstep in order to find out what the issues are outside the Westminster bubble.
Naturally they say that the opposition parties always have a black hole in their financial plans. Every politician wants to be careful to be seen to be against the self-serving metropolitan liberal elite despite the fact most politicians are in fact the metropolitan liberal elite themselves. Their plans will include pouring in more investment to the NHS. The parties of the right will say they want to send a message to the Union Barons and the left want to send a message to company bosses. All parties will be fighting against the Whitehall Mandarins who will be trying to subvert their plans. No politician wants to be a lame duck so they will reach out to the grass roots by looking at the findings of a think tank in order to better understand their needs. Or so they say.
Or in normal English:
So, most Political English and political speeches are just biased propaganda usually written by people who are employed just to write things to make politicians look good who promise, for example, to introduce new measurements to improve services provided by government directly to citizens. Which is a way of saying they are going to do nothing much except talk. They say they have been speaking to normal people in order to find out what they are worried about outside the insular world of politics in Westminster.
Naturally they say the political parties not in government always have financial plans that will cost too much money. Every politician wants to be careful to be seen against the wealthy people living in London who are only interested in their own concerns despite the fact that despite the fact most politicians are in fact the metropolitan liberal elite themselves. Their plans will include spending lots of public money on the National Health Service. The parties of the right will say they want to make a significant statement through their actions to the leaders of the Trade Unions and the left want to make a significant statement through their actions to company bosses. All parties will be fighting against the workings of the UK’s senior civil servants who will be trying to subvert their plans. No politician wants to be an ineffectual person due to having lost power so they will make contact in a beneficial way with their ordinary supporters and party members by looking at the findings of a body of experts in order to better understand their needs. Or so they say.
POLITICAL ENGLISH IS EVERYWHERE
Politicians seem to believe that we can be fooled by use of pretentious words and grammar structures. That is political English vocabulary. They use lazy metaphors again and again; the squeezed middle? riding roughshod over? fast and loose?
There was once an instance of a British civil servant using the expression ‘economical with the truth‘ to avoid saying that something he was saying was a lie.
If you’re not a native speaker then most of what they might say sounds like nonsense but learning the over-used metaphors and expressions enables you to see through their bad use of English. Or you could just ignore them and do something better instead.
Do leave me a comment is you have any other examples of Political English.
POLITICAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Union Barons is a pejorative term to indicate that the leaders of trade unions operate in an undemocratic and autocratic manner for their own benefit. A baron is an unelected aristocrat.
Whitehall Mandarins is a pejorative term to describe the UK’s senior civil servants suggesting they operate against the democratic wishes of the population. Whitehall is the road in Westminster in London which leads to the UK Parliament building and houses many offices of the UK civil service. Mandarin, apart from being the language of China, also used to be the name for a senior civil servant in China in the time of imperial China before communism. They were remote from the wishes and needs of the population of China.
Leave a comment