Nothing 'Plain' about this entry

We at HoldtheFrontPage always try to be clear and concise in the way we write our stories. So it was with no little amusement that we stumbled upon this titbit from the Plain English Campaign - the lobby group launched in 1979 to combat incomprehensible jargon in government and public body documents.

It holds a small number of annual awards, including one for the best regional newspaper, won last year by the Salford Star.

In December, it will hand out its annual 'Golden Bull' gong for "the worst examples of written tripe".

And we hear the smart money is being waged on this 102-word piece of 'ploddledygook' from the Association of Chief Police officers, which discusses.....erm.....we've no idea actually. Over to you:

"The promise of reform which the Green Paper heralds holds much for the public and Service alike; local policing, customized to local need with authentic answerability, strengthened accountabilities at force level through reforms to Police Authorities and HMIC, performance management at the service of localities with targets and plans tailored to local needs, the end of centrally engineered one size fits all initiatives, an intelligent approach to cutting red tape through redesign of processes and cultures, a renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our Service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities."

For the record, it was taken from ACPO's response to the government's green paper on policing and the way it will be conducted in the future.