Baby P: the language of nothing says everything

The Orwellian public-sector doublespeak trotted out to Eddie Mair, conceals the failures behind a tragedy, says Antonia Quirke

LAST UPDATED 10:46 AM, AUGUST 11, 2009

Wittgenstein was right, of course, about language being everything.

"Our inspection identified a number of serious concerns in relation to the safeguarding of children and young people in Haringey," said Miriam Rosen from Ofsted on Radio 4's PM on Monday, defending the report that gave the borough's child care department a rating of 'good' a year ago.

"...And we found that the contribution of local services to improving outcomes and safeguarding is inadequate and needs attention and we've got a whole lot of detail, findings and recommendations that come out of our report..."

Interviewer Eddie Mair paused. There was something so unyielding in the woman's tone it was hard to predict which way he might take things. "Can you pick out something that most vividly expresses that there was a problem in Haringey?" he asked.

I’ve heard people being asked to stop talking shit. Occasionally they cough

Really, he could not have been clearer. In the circumstances it even sounded a little naive. But the most naive questions are often the only truly serious ones. And there isn't a more serious or tender interviewer – no-one better equipped to keep tones of impatience out of their voice - than Mair in all of the BBC.

"...One problem was that there wasn't sufficient strategic leadership and management oversight of safeguarding," replied Rosen. "This means there wasn't enough challenge to get underneath the data and find out what was actually happening with regard to these young people..."

I should add that Miriam Rosen is Director of Education at Ofsted, not some intern wheeled out in the hope that because it's 5pm nobody worth broadcasting to is actually back from work yet.

"Forgive me," said Mair (he delivered this phrase beautifully - not a jot of sarcasm). "It sounds a little jargony - 'underneath the data'. What in practice does that mean, when we're thinking about vulnerable children?"

I've heard people trapped in the vice of managementspeak on the radio before being asked to basically stop throwing up clouds of shit, and occasionally they cough, as though physically freeing themselves, or literally calling up something suppressed. But Mair's appeal to cut the jargon invoked nothing in Rosen at all.

She was lost in clusters of meaningless phrases and unrelated bullet points

She had a kind of serenity attained through being very careful to let other people do the thinking.

"...One of the points that we highlight, is that the social care, health and police authorities weren't communicating effectively sufficiently with each other because in a case like this you do need to have full information coming from all the different parties involved so that a full assessment of the case can be made..."

Sure, sure, the lack of clarity in language and doublespeak and all that is scarcely a new gripe, but oh, this woman was so LOST, so inert, disappearing into little clusters of meaningless phrases and even running entirely unrelated bullet points together.

It's just that this sort of thing is usually fairly easily decodeable. But here was something stranger - a entirely chinkless way of speaking that had

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'Their talking is a form of speechlessness', an Antonia classic. A hilarious forensic dissection of muddled newspeak. Brilliant as ever Antonia.

Posted by Peter Simmons at 4:39pm on December 11, 2008

But unfortunately it is not muddled. The words are carefully chosen; they are intended to be opaque. Clarity of expression or policy is feared by contemporary politicians and bureaucrats.

Posted by Alan Dawes at 11:14am on August 11, 2009

Wasn't there a movement afoot to make officalese and legalese more understandable? Who speaks like this in normal life ? Isnt there a charge of "murdering the language"? Some people can talk for hours and say absolutely nothing. This woman did exactly that.

Posted by MichaelG at 1:32pm on August 11, 2009

Ofsted is a useless, toothless Quango and Miriam Rosen seems the perfect, uncaring time-server typical of such organisations, all mouth and no action.

Posted by mikidiki at 1:34pm on August 11, 2009

much as I agree with most of what Antonia says, the situation is even worse than she says, language is not everything: there were many many visits to the kid's house and he was seen again and again by doctors, policemen and social workers but somehow they did not see what was before their eyes. What are we to make of that?

Posted by Hilary Easton at 1:48pm on August 17, 2009