Verbal Inflation

We all have things we say too often, words or phrases we overuse to the point of rendering them meaningless. Barack Obama, for example, cannot get through a sentence without mentioning “change”. Alistair Darling utters the phrase “economic stability” every 2.8 seconds. And regular readers of this column will know I’m incapable of writing 1,000 words without mentioning my Mum or my home town of Wolverhampton.

But are there terms that British business uses too often? I ask because, on the way to work recently, I spotted a prison van marked “Reliance Custodial Services” and was struck by how omnipresent the word “services” has become. We don’t have banks anymore. We have financial services companies. We don’t have dustbin lorries. We have environmental management services. And it’s not just the all-pervadingness of the word that offends – the original words are almost always clearer.

There are other examples of overuse…

Read atTimes Online