Plain English Campaign

Musical sausage rolls liven up a plain lunch box

Bemused members of the public have been asking us for a plain English translation for the ‘ambient sausage rolls’  sold by The Co-operative supermarket.

Chrissie Maher, OBE and founder of Plain English Campaign said, ‘These sausage rolls have escaped from the technical production lines of the food industry to bring confusion and ruin the ‘ambience’ of our lunch breaks.’

When a pound is not a pound, it’s a burger

Plain English Campaign accepts that language changes to reflect the changes in our society. But that makes it even more important for businesses to get the facts right when encouraging customers to spend money.

There has been a surge of public objection about the information contained in a recent burger advertisement. The advertisement for ‘pound saver meals’ compares a £1 (one pound) to a ‘bob’ (slang for a shilling) as part of the promotion for the company’s 99 pence burger.

UN 1441 was not crystal-clear, but it should have been

Plain English Campaign was shocked to hear the frequent mention of the words ‘lack of clarity’, ‘unclear’ and ‘ambiguity’ during the Iraq war hearing. The investigatory panel and Lord Goldsmith were referring to the wording in documents, central to decisions for participation in the Iraq war.

The lack of clarity in the documents was not helped by the use of jargon like ‘automaticity’ and inappropriate use of legal terms like ‘material breach’. According to Lord Goldsmith, the ambiguous interpretations from translating the French words ‘se prononcer’, to either ‘consider’ or ‘decide’, had a major bearing on the need for a second resolution.