Jargon for jailbirds
From Mr Richard Owsley Sir: Theodore Dalrymple's columns usually fill me with despair, but there was a shaft of light in his 27 April offering. He describes the 'argot of prison', such terms as tirded off, 'striped up' and 'nutted off; but prisoners must be allowed their own jargon — every other sector of society is. Indeed, these phrases are highly creative — poetry, even — compared with the output of most publicsector managers and quasi-public-sector management gobbledegook. Actually, the private sector is no better, with its constant 'leveraging' and ubiquitous 'solutions'.
Fortunately for myself and many other writers, this management jargon pays the mortgage as we attempt to turn it into comprehensible English that someone might actually read and understand.
Richard Owsley Writers Ltd,
Temple Quay, Bristol
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