They are the menacing youths who hang about in gangs, causing trouble. For decades they have been known as "yobs". It has been rare for anybody to have a good word to say about them.
But now, it seems, police officers are going to have to find a more "polite" way to describe the nation's troublemakers, because Scotland Yard has banned its officers from using the word "yob", for fear that it might alienate young people. The edict has the backing of Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and will gird his reputation as "the PC pc".
The ban applies to all reports submitted by officers to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which oversees the force.
It remains unclear whether "hoodlums", "tearaways" or "ne'er-do-wells" will be seen as acceptable substitutes for the dreaded y-word. However, the restriction is unlikely to be obeyed by politicians on all sides who regularly berate yobs.
"Yob" is a rare example of backslang, a 19th-century cockney underworld parlance, and is simply "boy" spelt backwards. Tony Blair used the word in the Commons in 2004, while Labour pledged in its 2005 manifesto to "exclude yobs from town centres".
No comments:
Post a Comment