People of a certain age might remember Leonard Rossiter in ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’. This image reminded me of those episodes and seemed to fit in with a dilemma I currently find myself in.

In those episodes there was always a sketch in CJ’s office where the delivery of management speak was a masterly delivery of a cynical view of the obfuscation of information. I got a letter yesterday from a registered charity for the arts that contained what could have been a script from one of those shows. Even more so, I had a phone call with them today that threw no more light on the subject.

I worked for years in central government and the effort towards the end of my time there was to write in plain English. Even having drafted legislation and gone to the other extreme, written a 10,000 word dissertation I have to say I was bemused by the fog promulgated by a self-perpetuating oligarchy.