Positive greetings of a post-meridian manner.
On our crisp, multi-media proffering of user-friendly info' this close of play period, we celebrate, in a hands-on fashion, a fight back against jargon in Harrow.
You know, all the rubbish that litters forms - some to make silly people feel better about what they do by dressing up their job-description with a meaningless yet verbose title; some of it, more troublingly, is used to confuse or scare-off claimants. The good folk of Harrow Town Hall have said "enough is enough" instead of " we have reached a point, at this moment in time, when some of the verbiage employed by our operatives is superfluous". "Hurrah for them" says Ben, our man with the blue pencil and the Everyman Dictionary.
Some of this jargon-language is the child of political correctness - gender is a particular area of sensitivity. But race is the richest vein: even describing a day like today, with shares falling and bankers losing billions, as "Black Monday" has been frowned upon. But what is a serious race issue is the suggestion that black youths should not join the Met because it is STILL racist. The body that represents black police officers has issued a call for a boycott of the Met. That there needs to be a Black Police Association is, in many people's minds, a shameful sign of the times and we will be talking to the Association's Chair (there I go) on the programme.
One hopes no Police Officers were attending group meetings of any sort when two pitbulls, running on the loose, attacked and severely wounded a young mum out for a stroll with her toddler in his pushchair. She is badly, really badly, wounded. Her husband distraught, but the little boy, blessings, OK. There's now an almighty row about the investigation, about fault and about the attitude of the owner. Only when Katie said "The dogs could have eaten the child" did the full potential horror of this episode dawn upon me. She is right. It hardly bears thinking about. Nick has put on thick clothing and gloves to investigate.
Bozza is now the Chair of the Met Police Authority and Harris has been taking statements on how he is likely to do in over-seeing the Force and over-seeing the search for a replacement for Sir Ian Blair. Bozza says he is quintessentially a multi-culturalist because one of his grandparents was a Turk. Nevertheless, he will have to scratch his near white locks over the problem with black coppers... or a distinct lack of them, too.
Talking of jargon busting, Harris has just complained that he has been declared "de-skilled" because he hasn't edited, on his own, much since he returned triumphantly from Beijing. He'd have to "re-skill" he was told. I think it was only the "kill" bit of the word which was on his mind as he strode off to find a manager to discuss the matter with.
Ben Barnes is a handsome young actor who made a big splash in Prince Caspian, the latest Narnia movie. And he's got what sounds like a fun and fascinating new offering about to occupy your attentions as you sip Kiora and crunch popcorn of a Saturday night. KD and I will enjoy meeting him later.
Faye is back - I so like the boots, I'll say no more but she looks a holistic treat and I'll leave it at that - save to say, "welcome back, lovely!".
With that , "see you in a jiff" - or, may the ensuing interlude which places, in separate silos, that which you are tasked to perform and that which we have been charged with joint focused responsibility over, be brief.
Alastair & Katie.
