In a nod to George Orwell’s doublespeak an online platform has been launched that deciphers the real meanings behind what politicians say.
The platform has released a list of common political sayings and the truth behind them after new research revealed that nine out of ten young people believe all politicians lie.
The survey, commissioned by youth political platform, Shout Out UK, asked the 2,000 respondents what common phrases politicians use that confuse them, so it could translate them.
More than three quarters (84 per cent) said they feel that the language used in Parliament is ‘unnecessarily old-fashioned’ and nearly all (96 per cent) said the formality puts them off politics.
Here are the top phrases translated from the context it’s used in:
| The phrase | What the politician means | What it gets translated to | |||
| My honourable colleague | Addressing a member of a different party | Honourable? Yeah right! He’d sell him own mother for a chance to be in power. | |||
| Brexit means Brexit | A slogan used by Theresa May to reassure the public on Brexit | Brexit means bloody nothing – can I hide under this rock until it’s over?
| |||
| Strong and Stable
| A slogan used in the Conservatives re-election campaign | More like Weak and Wobbly – we don’t have a clue | |||
| Phase out university tuition fees within six years. Scrap fees for final-year students immediately | Liberal Democrats pledge to abolish university tuition fees | We’ll say whatever we have to in order to have a shot at power | |||
| We are delivering on our manifesto commitment
| We are doing what we promised in our campaign | We’ve delivered the bare minimum on the promise we made to get more votes *pats self on back* |
Matteo Bergamini, founder of Shout Out UK said: “We commissioned the survey to get an idea of what young people think of politicians and if they trust them; the clear answer is no. We decided to have a bit of fun with it and have had great feedback from our respondents about our ‘political translator’.
“However, this shows us a disappointing reality for young people – that many do not believe a word coming out of a politician’s mouth. I hope this highlights to politicians the perception members of the public have about them, and hopefully this will compel them to actually speak truthfully – and more naturally – to their constituents.”
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