- Turkey stuffed again - 16th April 2025
- Say what you mean! - 15th April 2025
- Another serving of witches brew… - 15th April 2025
During 23 years with the BBC, and 41 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, euphemisms and metaphors were regrettably often used, and now this is put centre stage by Donald Trump describing the financial chaos he has unleashed with tariffs, as merely a case of people “getting a little bit yippy”.
You had to interpret the phrases.
When I was in television there was a whole new language to learn.
A programme in reserve (which almost never happened frankly) was “on the shelf”, if there was doubt about the transmission, you would “suck it and see”, when you confronted an individual with evidence against him or her (even if it was in the street), you would “doorstep” the person.
We see euphemisms or metaphors used all the time by those in government, when they don’t want to spook voters by saying things openly and transparently.
In the past it has been even worse, and when Boris Johnson was in charge the technique was taken to new heights!
During the Brexit referendum apart from dubious so-called ‘facts’, we were told to expect “sunlit uplands”, although they’ve yet to appear.
Mr Johnson turned to culinary metaphors and became famous for declaring that we could “have our cake and eat it!”. This became known as ‘cakeism’.
Now we hear it all the time in the United States of America (USA), where it appears President Donald Trump doesn’t want to be too candid over the financial meltdown caused by his tariffs.
Mr Trump, has, therefore, resorted to not spelling out plainly the effects of his policy.
For example, the markets plummeting was only a case of people “getting a little bit yippy”.
After pausing some tariffs for 90 days, he said all the turbulence was merely “a transition cost” en route to the glorious reconstruction of the American economy.
“In the end it’s going to be a beautiful thing”, he purred.
Mr Trump is, in other words, trying to tell a specific story about his policies: that Americans will experience short-term pain but make long-term gain.
Yet apart from the chaos in financial markets, there have been other reasons to be concerned.
For instance a small-business optimism index published by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has fallen for three straight months.
The tariff shock activated a cycle of asset price declines, and deleveraging (reduced borrowing – which affects investment).
The partial reversal (the 90 day pause in full implementation) seemed to offer a temporary resolution, but it is likely that the fall in stocks and shares as well as bonds (which affects everybody’s pension), will resume immediately afterwards.
You can expect the euphemisms too to start again.
Perhaps they will get worse as well ON THIS SIDE OF THE POND!
The memories of Phil’s decades long award-winning career in journalism (when words were always chosen carefully) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disease Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now.
