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Tag Archives: gov.uk

No more leverage or transformation

By Mary Reid | Mon 29th July 2013 - 3:00 pm

Some years ago my portfolio as a Cabinet member in Kingston Council included Communications. My first act was to set about enforcing the use of Plain English in all communications between the Council and residents. Although leaflets had been subjected to scrutiny, and many had won the Crystal mark, hundreds of standard letters were still written in ‘councilese’. So with the officers I set up a Better Letters campaign, which named and shamed the worst, and awarded plaudits to the most improved letters, as well as providing advice.

One of my favourite sentences appeared in the standard letter telling residents about …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged jargon | 11 Comments

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Recent Comments

Mick Taylor
@TristanWard. I have never been Mike my entire life. Please don’t take it upon yourself to unilaterally change my name...
David Le Grice
Oddly the article leaves out the full context of the Kirklees result. This was a lib dem ward prior to the may elections which reform gained from us. So winnin...
David Warren
Delighted to have contributed to the win in Almondbury by making several hundred phone calls to voters. Winning Here!...
Tristan Ward
@ Mike , yes an encouraging night....
Mick Taylor
A rather good council by-election week. I see the doomsayers are not saying that our performance is terrible this week, but they're not saying anything positive...