Corrupting our language, where care and concern for children is called ‘hate’, and mutilating and poisoning them is ‘love’

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 17th December 2024)

It was George Bernard Shaw who said: “The British and the Americans are two great peoples divided by a common tongue.” That might not be quite true, but we have had different dialects, but these, too, are merging with the Americanisation of the English language. This is nothing new. Speaking on the wireless in 1935, Alistair Cooke declared that “Every Englishman (sic) listening to me now unconsciously uses 30 or 40 Americanisms a day”.

Dr Hilary Cass with her report on NHS services for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria

When I first came to the U.K., even though I was a first generation South African from an English-speaking family, I used words and phrases that were not understood in Brighton. ‘Red robots’ and ‘circles’ in the road meant nothing to Brightonians who said ‘traffic lights’ and ‘roundabouts’. Before then, my father and his brother who were born and brought up in Stoke-on-Trent, could communicate with each other in the North Staffs dialect that the rest of us struggled to comprehend. A more famous saying, now available as an inscription on mugs, asks: “Cost tha kick a bo agen a wo an yed it til thee bost eet?” It means: “Can you kick a ball against a wall and head it until it bursts?” My aunt Dorothy, who lived in the Potteries, would call me “duck” – a common term of affection towards both men and women as in “Tow rate owd duck?” meaning “Are you all right dear?”

Our language and local dialects are being lost thanks to our arrogant cousins from across the Atlantic. We no longer have tomato sauce but ketchup. Chips are now fries (though not in South Africa where crisps are called chips). Mac and cheese, keeping you across all the news, and cookies are just a few other examples. Why can’t we say macaroni cheese, keeping you up-to-date, and biscuits? Computers have given new meanings to common words like apple, windows, mouse and cookies.

‘Sussex as she wus spoke’ is a delightful guide to the Sussex dialect by Tony Wales. I learned some gems from this book: ‘all mops and brooms’ (to be in a muddle), a ‘bum-freezer’ (short coat), and ‘so drunk he couldn’t see through a ladder’ (very drunk). Many of the words and sayings are, to me, ‘wimwams for goose’s bridles’ (something not understood). This column gets its shares of ‘balsam’ (uncomplimentary remarks) but I hope I will be spared on this occasion.

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, ‘Newspeak’ limited a person’s ability to articulate and communicate abstract concepts, such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will, which were described as ‘thoughtcrimes’, acts of personal independence that contradicted the ideological orthodoxy.  Orwell explained that Newspeak is a language characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary where complete thoughts are reduced to simple terms such as Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), and Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty). 

Political discourse today has adopted a similar approach. The most obvious recent example has been the ability to close down debate on women’s sex-based rights by accusing someone of being a TERF (a trans-exclusionary radical feminist) or being ‘transphobic’ when questioning the ideological orthodoxy of trans-rights. 

After the publication last week of the thoughtful and authoritative Cass Report on NHS services for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria, it has been interesting to see which politicians have backtracked on their previously-held views. These same people never lifted a finger to defend the likes of Professor Kathleen Stock (hounded out of Sussex University for her gender critical views) or the Labour MP Rosie Duffield (ostracised and abandoned by her party’s leadership). These latter-day converts are yet to apologise to Kathleen or Rosie, or the countless other women and some men (like Father Ted creator, Graham Linehan) who have spoken out so bravely. Yet some of those who said nothing are now calling for a ‘kinder’ dialogue when through their previous silence they were complicit in a hateful ideology.

This ideology has, for almost a decade, captured politics and, most alarmingly, the NHS. Children have been put on toxic medication that can lead to an increase in cancers and infertility, and young people have been mutilated by the removal of perfectly healthy organs.  And here again language has been corrupted. As my friend, Helen Saxby, explained, “it’s urging caution and research in the treatment of children that has been smeared as ‘hate’, and playing fast and loose with children’s health that has been rebranded as ‘love’.” It is people like Helen who will be judged as being on the right side of history, and that history has begun to be written through the Cass Report.

Exploding myths about the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce

(This item was first published in my ‘Brighton and Beyond’ column in the Brighton Argus on 27th April 2022)

In the late 1970’s my aunty Dorothy, a market trader, was President of the Chamber of Commerce in Stoke-on-Trent.  Shortly after I had arrived in England, I went with her to a charity event where the main performer was someone called Blaster Bates, a demolition expert whose stories were so funny that he could fill theatres, particularly in the north-west, with his one-man show.

I thought I was going to a dull Chamber of Commerce meeting only to find this crazy guy setting off explosions all over the theatre. I hate anything that goes bang. I even cower when balloons are being inflated! Somehow I survived that most terrifying evening.

Fortunately my experience of that Chamber event did not put me off and, through my work at BHT Sussex, I am a proud member of the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce.

When many people think about a Chamber of Commerce, they imagine boring middle-aged men in grey suits. Nothing could be further from the reality of the Brighton Chamber, although I was for five years a token, boring middle-aged man on its Board. 

Julie Roff, President of the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce

It is a thriving organisation, led by a team of dynamic women, including its President, Julie Roff, and Chief Executive, Sarah Springford. Through a wide range of training, support and networking events, it brings together around 650 businesses, including 50 charities, and provides opportunities to influence others. 

Some people, after joining the Chamber, go to their first event expecting to pick up new business. They are inevitably disappointed. Membership of the Chamber should be seen as providing an environment in which to build relationships so that everyone can thrive. I am a member because it feeds my brain, provides wonderful networking opportunities, and is great fun – without Blaster Bates setting off any explosions!

As with any membership organisation, you get out of it what you put in. But here’s a warning: the Chamber is involved in so many activities that if you tried to go to everything, it might be fun but you wouldn’t have the time to run your business and it would go bust!

The climate crisis should be in the forefront of all our minds. Recently the Chamber organised one of its regular Big Debates, this one on the challenge of achieving net zero. It has a group of ‘Net Zero Champions’ which brings together 50 businesses in the city, sharing ideas, learning and experiences.

Uniquely, the Brighton Chamber has led the Living Wage campaign locally, the only Chamber nationally to do so.  It is said that the 800 plus Living Wage employers in the city constitute more than one in ten Living Wage employers in the country. It is something about which we should be most proud.

The Living Wage was a cause close to the heart of Bill Randall who, in 2011, was the Leader of the City Council which was committed to the introduction of a Brighton living wage.  (Bill is now the Chair of the inspirational Brighton Table Tennis Club which is one of many clubs, along with the likes of Lewes FC and Whitehawk FC, that brings about social change through sport). 

Bill recognised that, elsewhere, the idea of a living wage had been viewed with some suspicion, even hostility, by sections of the business community.  But Bill had the wisdom to approach the Brighton Chamber to ask its then President, Julia Chanteray, to chair the Living Wage Commission which the Council was setting up.

True leadership is the ability to inspire people and align them behind one’s cause, and Bill’s decision to involve the Chamber is an example of inspired leadership.  This led to the Chamber running the Living Wage campaign, something it continues to do to this day.

As far as the City Council is concerned, the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce offers a unique means for it to engage with around 650 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and a few larger ones as well. Most new jobs in the City are being created by SMEs. The success of the city depends on a vibrant and engaged business community.

Chief Executive of the Chamber, Sarah Springford, on being named ‘The Outstanding Brightonian’ at the 2016 Brighton and Hove Business Awards

This Friday the Chamber’s Summit, its annual conference, is taking place. The Brighton Summit brings together 300 businesses and dynamic entrepreneurs from across our diverse business community, along with this boring middle-aged man in his grey suit. It is a day for strengthening existing relationships and for forging new ones.

The Brighton Summit celebrates the spirit of the city which makes it such a dynamic region in which to live, work and do business.

For more information about joining the Chamber, have a look at its website www.brightonchamber.co.uk, contact Amy Lishman on 01273 719097, or pop into Eagle Lab at Preston Circus.