Predictors of Beaconicity

Humour is a funny thing.  Missmarketcrash is amused by the conversation about the "words banned by the LGA" post. Where on earth has everyone's sense of humour gone?  Missmc found the list utterly hilarious.  She also finds the phrase "humour is a funny thing" really really funny.  Especially with the British spelling.

How do some words slip into being a cliche?  And what is a cliche?  Flaubert, in his "Dictionary of Received Ideas" had fun with this notion.  "In its essence", "at a certain point", a word is rendered fairly meaningless and reduced to a puff mushroom.  There it is, and then, pop -- there is nothing left of it.  We "carry on" reading or talking without analysis or thought.  Carry on.  Have you ever stopped to visualize that?  Or dissect it in context?

Many readers demanded a link of proof that there was such a list.  The point was the absurdity of some poor bureaucrat compiling such a list with earnestness, and getting carried away with his listmaking to the extent that ordinary words such as "Welcome" creeped in.  Other words were only a cliche in the world of the bureaucrat and incomprehensible to the public.  Fair enough, but, still funny.  Who would not pause and giggle at a phrase such as "Predictors of Beaconicity"?  The pedantic nature of issuing such guidance reflected back on the notion of bureaucracy itself.  And, that, in itself, is - and here comes the cliche - LOL.

I'm speechless...

Here in Britain, a list of words have been published that are banned from use by Local Government Authorities.  From A...

across-the-piece, actioned, advocate, agencies, ambassador, area based, area focused, autonomous, baseline, beacon, benchmarking, best practice, blue sky thinking, bottom-up, CAAs, can do culture, capabilities, capacity, capacity building, cascading, cautiously welcome, challenge, champion, citizen empowerment, client, cohesive communities, cohesiveness, collaboration, commissioning, community engagement, compact, conditionality, consensual, contestability, contextual, core developments, core message, core principles, core value, coterminosity, coterminous, cross-cutting, cross-fertilization, customer, democratic legitimacy, democratic mandate, dialogue, direction of travel, distorts spending priorities, double devolution, downstream, early win, edge-fit, embedded, empowerment, enabler, engagement, engaging users, enhance, evidence base, exemplar, external challenge, facilitate, fast-track, flex, flexibilities and freedoms, framework, fulcrum, functionality, funding streams, gateway review, going forward, good practice, governance, holistic, holistic governance, horizon scanning, improvement levers, incentivising, income streams, indicators, initiative, innovative capacity, inspectorates, interdepartmental, interface, iteration, joined up, joint working, LAAs, Level playing field, lever, leverage, localities, lowlights, MAAs, mainstreaming, management capacity, meaningful consultation, meaningful dialogue, mechanisms, menu of options, multi-agency, multidisciplinary, municipalities, network model, normalising, outcomes, output, outsourced, overarching, paradigm, parameter, participatory, partnership working, partnerships, pathfinder, peer challenge, performance network, place shaping, pooled budgets, pooled resources, pooled risk, populace, potentialities, practitioners, predictors of beaconicity, preventative services, prioritization, priority, proactive, process driven, procure, procurement, promulgate, proportionality, protocol, provider vehicles, quantum, quick hit, quick win, rationalisation, rebaselining, reconfigured, resource allocation, revenue streams, risk based, robust, scaled-back, scoping, sector wise, seedbed, self-aggrandizement, service users, shared priority, shell developments, signpost, single conversations, single point of contact, situational, slippage, social contracts, social exclusion, spatial, stakeholder, step change, strategic, strategic priorities, streamlined, sub-regional, subsidiarity, sustainable, sustainable communities, symposium, systematics, taxonomy, tested for soundness, thematic, thinking outside of the box, third sector, toolkit, top-down, trajectory, tranche, transactional, transformational, transparency, upstream, upward trend, utilise, value-added, visionary, welcome, wellbeing, worklessness.

A dictionary of received ideas no doubt.

(Link to LGA text here)

(link to more predictors of beaconicity...)