Even the police have started saying “around”

Posted August 16, 2011 in ephemera  |  1 Comment so far

Back in November 2010 I posted about the “new media around”:

…it’s a linguistic phenomenon that’s making waves in the media, technology and marketing industries, inlcuding seo companies offering link building services. It involves the word “around” being used as a substitute for a great many words and phrases including ‘about’, ‘related to’, ‘surrounding’ and so on.

So for example someone who once talked about lunch plans would now say “let’s talk around lunch plans”. Or someone who used to focus on social media engagement would now “focus around” social media engagement. You get the general gist.

Anyway I noticed the other day that Tim Godwin, the acting commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is an unlikely convert to “around” as demonstrated in this Guardian article from last Friday:

With the [riots] in London, I have got some of the best commanders that we have seen in the world… that showed great restraint as well as great courage…

As a result of that we were able to nip this in the bud after a few days. I think the issue around the numbers, the issue around the tactics – they are all police decisions and they are all made by my police commanders and myself.

If the police are using it, perhaps the “new media around” is on the verge of going properly mainstream?


1 comment so far.  Post a comment

  1. John
    October 5, 2011 at 4:09 pm [ Permalink

    Note the misuse/abuse of the reflexive pronoun “myself”. He should have said “me”. This is an increasingly common error made by people who think that using the English language incorrectly makes them sound somehow more genteel.

    “they are all police decisions and they are all made by […] myself.”

    Unless of course he is using the intensive form of the pronoun – meaning that he sits on his own and makes his decision without consulting anyone… but somehow I think not.

    Nice to see you doing well Brendan!

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