Coastalblog

A bit of a spectacular soft-shoe shuffle from the collected UK media this week as HMG backed down in the face of wide back-bench unrest from planned cuts in the Welfare Bill. It has long been an article of faith in these quarters that language is important, and it has been both interesting  and instructive to see the language used around Keir Starmer's maneuvering in the face of concerted opposition from a wide swathe of the PLP. What has also been somewhat telling is how the story has been framed, and how the framing has changed, but I'll come onto that in a moment The language around the change has been hyperbolic. He has "caved in" it's a "humiliating climbdown", he's "lost all credibility". The story is of a weak and craven man, humbled by a wee bit of opposition, feeble, falling at the first fence. All talk is of "U-turns", as if there coukd be nothing worse.  Let's reframe the story another way: "after listening to ...

"He says it's inedible" said my front of house manager, as she laid the half-eaten fish and chips in front of me, and instantly I relaxed.  Clearly, I observed, it was edible to some degree. I comped it, because I can't be arsed arguing the toss, and I want to make my front of house's lives as simple as possible. The haddock had been delivered that morning. The fryers had been cleaned that morning. The batter had been made that morning (and it's very good batter, ask me nicely and I'll give you the recipe some time). The fish and chips was identical to the other 27 portions I'd sent out on that lunch service, all of which had come back more or less hoovered up, we have have a (justified, if I do say so myself) very good reputation for our chips. But it was, apparently, "inedible". When it comes to complaints, less is more. If you use a hyperbolic word like that, I'll switch off, you've marked yourself as a rube, a chump, I'm not g...