Regular readers of this blog (Sid and Doris Blogger) will realise that you are unlikely to read here any praise of the Tory Government - but anyone would have to admire the Prime Minister’s imaginative development of the English language.
Apparently if, after months and years of negotiations, two parties fail to arrive at a deal this is no longer, as it once was a simple breakdown in negotiations or “no deal” - now it is an “Australia-style deal”.
This is an important development in use of English for employee relations of course.
If only we had known - when we failed to secure any increase in London weighting after strike action in 2002 and 2003 - we should not have had to admit failure. Instead we should have said we had an “Australia-style deal” on London weighting.
Similarly when there was such a disappointing response to the two day national local government pay strike in 2008 we didn’t need to consider the dispute a failure - rather we had achieved an “Australia-style” national pay settlement (in fact we seem to have had a lot of those over the years).
Indeed - back in 1985 Arthur Scargill should not have announced that the miners were going back to work without a settlement of their dispute - he could have claimed an “Australia-style” deal on pit closures.
I can see this new language coming in handy for union officials for a long time into the future…
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