Book Review: The Banned List

Twitter followers of the journalist John Rentoul will be familiar with the concept of the 'Banned List', but for those not 'in the know' I will outline the general thrust of the idea.

The Banned List is a collection of tired cliches and worn-out phrases. It's the regurgitated jumble sale of words and sentences which you hear and read in the political press and beyond. At last I have found someone who also condemns the 'Westminster village' and rallies against 're-arranging the deckchairs on the titanic'.

The first section of the book takes the form of an extremely compelling and thoughtful essay by John Rentoul which mentions everyone from Orwell to the cliches of journalists Alice Miles and Paul Mason. Which leads me into the one fault I found with the book. It has a definite Blair-ite lean to it which was obvious to me but I'm not sure if this was because I know Rentoul won't hide his politics whatever he writes or if there was any actually political bias in it.

The Green Party European manifesto of 2009 is cited as an example of the incorrect use of the phrase 'It's the economy, stupid' for example. Which is fine, and other people are attacked on the left alongside us for their language but the political bias grated after twenty pages in. I'm sure Blair-ite politicians and journalists over-use cliche, just not here in John Rentoul's essay. It just didn't seem right that a language essay should be political but that's a minor point. It didn't detract too much from an interesting piece of writing.

Overall the essay is well considered and well worth reading if you are a language student or just an interested person wanting to join Rentoul in his attack on tired phrases.

Join the discussion with John Rentoul on Twitter by using the hashtag #bannedlist.

Thanks to Elliott & Thompson Books for sending me a review copy.

You can buy The Banned List here.