Past newsletters 2003

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Plain English update 19 December 2003

Last week the Government announced their proposals for a clean up of the loans and credit card market. This week a committee of MPs announced the findings of their investigation into the credit card market...

Scheduling curiosities aside, the Treasury Committee report was welcome news to those who believe credit card small print is confusing or even actively misleading. Among the committee's recommendations were the following.

• The industry should, within a few months, voluntarily adopt government proposals for leaflets to carry a summary box of the most important information about a credit card deal, rather than waiting for legislation to force them into action.
• The format and content of the summary boxes should be tested on the public to find the most effective style.
• The text in the summary box should be at least 12 point (the Government's proposals did not state a minimum size, merely saying it must be legible) while the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) should be at least 18 point.
• The industry should adopt a single method for working out the APR on a card. The method should be the one that is clearest for the consumer.
• The industry should be even clearer about explaining how payments are applied to pay off the various charges on an account, possibly even printing a warning if the system used will not work out the cheapest for the consumer.

A Competition Commission report has warned retailers to give clearer information when selling extended warranties. Sir Derek Morris, chair of the Commission, says firms should:

• display the price of warranties as prominently as the price of the product itself;
• make it clear that extended warranties can be bought from other companies as well as the one selling the product; and
• clearly state whether or not the scheme is backed by insurance (which affects whether or not it will pay out even if the retailer has gone out of business.)

Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, has formally accepted the report and will give legal force to the recommendations.

The following is the script of a radio advert dealing with tuition fees. We apologise for not bringing it to you earlier, but our spoof-detection senses had been tingling. However, it is indeed genuine, and we were pleased to see the ironic acknowledgement that strained attempts to use 'fashionable' language to appeal to teenagers usually fail to impress!

Spokesman: There now follows a message about going to university. (Cough). Word up.

Youth (not impressed): He says he's got something interesting to tell you.

Spokesman: The mega news is that the darty government posse will help you through uni by shelling out the clam.

Youth: There's lots of financial help available like loans, grants and help with fees.

Spokesman: You cough up zip till ya minted.

Youth: You won't pay back a penny of your loan until you're earning over £15,000 a year.

Spokesman: So peg it man, don't veg.

Youth: To find out what's available to you now and the changes proposed for the future call 0800 587 8500 for your free information pack.

Spokesman: Don't sack it, braw.

Youth: Don't stop. Aim higher.

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Plain English update 12 December 2003

According to Government plans announced this week, credit card and personal loan small print could become an endangered species.

The plans are part of a white paper titled 'Fair, Clear and Competitive - The Consumer Credit Market in the 21st Century.' (A white paper is published to show the Government's specific intentions for proposed laws, but allows for public and industry feedback before the plans go before Parliament.)

There are several changes proposed that relate to clear communication.

• Firms must all use the same method to work out the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of interest that they quote in adverts (at the moment rival companies use at least ten different methods).
• Adverts must be 'clear, fair and not misleading' (this is already a guiding principle of the self-regulating advertising industry, but will now be a legal requirement).
• Terms and conditions must carry a standardised box giving the key points of the agreement. (These are known as 'Schumer boxes', named after Charles Schumer,the politician who introduced similar laws in the United States.)
• Terms and conditions must be 'legible' (though there will not be a specific minimum type size).
• Hiding nasty surprises in the small print will no longer be possible as, aside from headings, all terms and conditions must be printed in the same size.

To tie in with the white paper, the Department of Trade and Industry published the results of a survey of consumer understanding and opinion about borrowing. Among the findings were that:

• 80% of people said they wanted more information on their legal rights;
• 73% said they always read terms and conditions before signing a credit agreement;
• 84% said the language used in credit agreement paperwork is confusing; and
• 44% said they had not always understood the terms used on the credit agreement forms that they had signed.

The language used in press statements about hospital patients is well-established, with terms such as 'critical' and 'stable' commonplace. However. we saw an example that, while medically correct, sounded a little odd this week.

Rock star Ozzy Osbourne was injured earlier this week in a quad bike accident (fortunately he is recovering well as we write this newsletter).

Speaking shortly after the singer was taken to hospital with eight broken ribs, a broken vertebra in his neck, some minor bleeding into his lungs, and a broken collarbone obstructing a major artery to his arm, leaving him wearing a hard collar and with a tube in his throat preventing him from speaking, a spokesman described his condition as 'comfortable'.

Chancellor Gordon Brown this week published the wording that will be used if there is a referendum on Britain joining the European single currency. We are interested to hear your opinion on:

• whether the document is clear and unambiguous; and
• whether you feel the document is suitably politically neutral.

The proposed wording is:

'Should the United Kingdom adopt the euro as its currency?'

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Plain English update 5 December 2003

We'd like to begin this week by welcoming all our newly registered supporters. We now have more than 4,000 people 'on-board', including our first supporters in Bahrain, Belarus, the Cocos Islands and Jordan.

To say the least, our annual awards this week were a success. The event itself went to plan with the venue packed to capacity. Guest presenter Fiona Bruce gracefully read the text of the winning Golden Bull entries including a 108 word sentence, while Standard Life's Director of Legal Services was brave enough to collect the firm's Golden Bull trophy. This is the first time a Bull winner has appeared at the ceremony since 2000.

We also made the news, with our staff giving more than 40 radio and television interviews: plain English devotees could literally watch the story morning (BBC), noon (Channel 4) and night (ITV)! According to a CNN chart, our awards were number one in their top ten of e-mail subjects for the day.

Not everybody agreed with our choice of Donald Rumsfeld for the Foot in Mouth honour, and the award has provoked countless debates on internet message boards, ranging from the purely linguistic to the political and philosophical. But we certainly seem to have promoted the cause of plain English, with more than 100,000 people having visited our site so far this week.

Aside from the various pro- and anti‑Rumsfeld e‑mails, we've received several dozen reports of a comment by another politician, which is already the leading candidate for next year's awards. And several people offered the theory that Arnold Schwarzenegger's comment 'I believe gay marriage should be between a man and a woman' was actually a case of the California governor using 'gay' in its original sense of 'happy' or 'care-free'. Could 'Arnie' in fact be a stickler for traditional language?

A tip on BBC 2's Working Lunch made us smile this week. Apparently, when searching for a term at www.google.co.uk, you can add '-waffle' to your search to filter out some types of unrelated pages, such as price comparison sites.

If only '-waffle' worked in real life...

Two government departments have called for clearer and more specific information in environmental claims on product packaging. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Trade and Industry have produced 'Green Claims - Practical Guidance', which warns that vague, confusing or meaningless claims may no longer be tolerated.

Among the examples given of dubious claims are:

• paint tins saying 'no added lead' (lead has been banned for many years);
• 'sustainable' or 'environmentally friendly' (both vague); and
• 'recycled' (when it is unclear if this applies to the packaging or the product itself.

Lord Whitty, the minister responsible for business and the environment, said, 'False, misleading or meaningless information undermines consumers' faith in green claims and labels generally'.

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