Picture of a judge's wigThe Judge RANTS!Picture of a judge's wig



Date: 10/10/18

Misuse Of Language

I wonder if people who find themselves dressed in a little brief authority (or, at least, power which - as Chesterton reminded us - is not the same thing) ever ponder on the language they use?

Probably not; such people tend never to hear anything other than the sound of their own voice as they imagine it sounds to everyone else. That what the rest of us hears tends to be the sound of quacking, I don't suppose there's much hope for self-awareness on their part.

I mean, here's a report on a disciplinary hearing against a teaching assistant who was accused, amongst other things, of disseminating a photograph of her colleagues performing what is in touch-me-not fashion described as "a sexual innuendo" with a toy crocodile.

This is the way in which the man who was, to all intents and purposes, the prosecuting counsel described the action:

Quote from a newspaper report: 'Some of the pictures showed 'misuse of a reptile'...'

How does one correctly use a reptile? Especially a toy one?

But, in the realm of imaginary offences, we have actually been here before, as this story illustrates.