Abuse
September 27th, 2006
Simon Hoggart on Tony Blair’s farewell to Conference:
Then he broke off for a story about his sons, Nicky and Euan, who had been canvassing for Labour in a street where a man gave them a volley of abuse, “I hate that Tony Blair!” and so on. Then, when Euan said “that’s my Dad”, the man said he was very sorry and offered him a cup of tea. It was a heartwarming story, told to illustrate the essential decency of the British people, but it left me wondering why they even bother to canvass in Downing Street.
[Via LinkMachineGo]
September 28th, 2006 at 7:36 am
“Tony Blair’s farewell to Conference:”
I’m trying to put my finger on what’s oddly contemporary British about this usage, but not quite managing.
There’s something about the lack of adjective and specifics that makes it uniquely so.
British newspapers, publications, and usage in the last decade or so all tend to leave off modifiers as unnecessary, as if everyone were all in the same club, or such.
“Conference” here does it: it’s not as if anyone knows to need which or where, and that’s the point.
You’d never seen this in any other English-speaking country, I’m sure. We’d all feel a sad obligation to note that it’s the “Labour Conference” at such and such a place.
You’ve all become so efficient. (In comparison, American newspapers have adopted a style of being written for idiots, with every noun and adjective Carefully Explained, as if for 6-year-olds. It’s bizarrely parallel in opposite directions.)