Not long ago, politicians worldwide acquired the habit of asking themselves a series of questions and then answering them “yes” or “no”. Maybe it started with Bush and Rumsfeld, but I do not know. Will this be the last time this technique is used? No. Was there anything grating or condescending involved? Yes. Did it catch on and get used by every empty suit? Yes.
Then came “We stand together with the people of….” often as a substitute for action. In Canada, the phrase was trotted out after disasters and foreign crises.
More lately, the tough and somehow infantile “Make no mistake!”. Unsure of its provenance but was used a lot recently in press conferences about the Canadian convoy.
What political slang is commonly used in your country? What other expressions amuse or annoy you?
Where do these phrases come from?
What similar expressions were used on the past but have had their day in the sun?
btw is much of that even slang (as opposed to rhetorical devices and semantic disfluencies)? How about all the jargon like “aide-mémoires”, “cables”, “residents” [ie spies], etc. I’m sure ministry workers, White House officials, and so on have lots of their own fascinating slang
I think what the OP has in mind might best be termed “clichés” (and evasive ones at that). “Let me be perfectly clear” (='I’m trying to be anything but") or “We’ve always said…” (=“but we’ve no intention of doing it, unless er absolutely have to”).
But fashions come and go. Resigning “to spend more time with the family” quickly became derided, to the point where someone once said “I have nothing against X’s family, but shouldn’t he be spending more time with them?”
Yeah, slang might not be the word. Commonly used current expressions by politicians in speeches and press conferences? How do you summarize that? Glib expressions?
One thing that does irk me about Trudeau is he is always talking about the middle class, and those who aspire to join them. In Canada, everyone I know considers themselves “middle class”. Even over 90% of my medical school class did.
The current fury-inducing practice in the UK is the Faux Apology. Something which includes the word “sorry” but which is not even close to being an apology. Example:
“Minister, would you like to take this opportunity to apologize for being present at a drunken party in Downing Street at the height of lockdown? People are furious about it.”
“Well, I’m very sorry if people have jumped to a conclusion about what happened…”
Home Secretary Priti Patel does this all the time.
The rise in the word “optics” about political speech and events bugs me. It’s not completely new usage, but the prevalence has gone way up in the 2000s.
Part of it is that the word annoys me, but mostly it’s because it signifies we’ve gone meta, placing more importance on how we talk about things than the things themselves.
I’ve used this one myself to great effect. And I’m not even a politician, just a volunteer, doing my job when someone overheard me giving asked for information and got his undies in a bundle.