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QUENTIN LETTS: There's been an uptick in groovy Americanisms - but going forward you can toss them in the trash can! By QUENTIN LETTS FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 19:53 EDT, 26 April 2025 | Updated: 19:55 EDT, 26 April 2025 e-mail View comments At his St George's Day party in Downing Street , clunky Keir Starmer laid on pork pies, Pimm's and Eccles cakes. It was almost a surprise he didn't pull out a ukulele and start singing George Formby's It's Turned Out Nice Again. With the PM so desperate to stress his Englishness, just one question: why does he spout so many Americanisms? Sir Keir is forever 'calling out' people of whom he disapproves.
Not long ago a British speaker would have 'deplored' or 'denounced' but now it's 'call out', that American expression presumably being considered more with-it. Where once MPs used cricket metaphors they now turn to baseball: 'first base', 'stepping up to the plate', 'brand new ballgame', 'playing hardball', 'hitting it out of the park' and 'touching base'. What was wrong with sticky wickets, long stops, googlies and whacking things for six? Alas, our dreary political class dislikes British culture and reaches instead for something foreign.
No longer content with 'all day', MPs speak of services being available '24/7'. They think it sounds groovier, I suppose. Groovy? Another Americanism! If you were 'in the groove' as a 1930s American jazz musician you were good enough to have your music committed to vinyl records, which had grooves.
At his St George's Day party in Downing Street, clunky Keir Starmer laid on pork pies, Pimm's and Eccles cakes. It was almost a surprise he didn't pull out a ukulele and start singing George Formby's It's Turned Out Nice Again, writes Quentin Letts With the PM so desperate to stress his Englishness, just one question: why does he spout so many Americanisms?, Letts asks Sir Keir is forever 'calling out' people of whom he disapproves. Not long ago a British speaker would have 'deplored' or 'denounced' but now it's 'call out', that American expression presumably being considered more with-it, says Letts Americanisms no longer impart grooviness.
They have become stale. When MPs say 'from the get-go' (ie 'from the start') they sound teenagerish and fake. And guttural.
'Outage' is another stinker. It was much evident in the Commons a month ago when a sub-station blew up at Heathrow Airport. In the 1970s we had 'power cuts'.
An alternative was 'black-out', but you would not want to say that nowadays for fear of a midnight raid from the constabulary. Researchers recently studied parliamentary debates from the past quarter of a century. Americanisms had risen by nearly 40 per cent.
One was 'reaching out', American psychobabble for 'embrace'. David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Dominic Raab frequently spoke of 'reaching out to emerging powers' or 'reaching out to victims'. 'Reach out' has a plastic, insincere quality.
During lockdown we were told to 'stay home' – a sloppy, bossy Americanism. We British might have preferred to 'stay at home' but the slogan was devised by David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Dominic Raab frequently spoke of 'reaching out to emerging powers' or 'reaching out to victims'. 'Reach out' has a plastic, insincere quality.
Letts writes David Cameron used twice as many Americanisms as other recent PMs. Was this a surprise, given he was a pukka Etonian? No. Etonians are chameleons, Letts says Mr Johnson's spin doctor Isaac Levido, an Australian who had worked on Republican campaigns for the US Senate.
The then Health Secretary Matt Hancock loved slipping into a transatlantic accent to show how hands-on he was. Then came video footage of him with another chap's wife and we saw 'hands-on' did not quite do him justice. It is a wonder Mr Hancock did not open his frequent Downing Street pandemic briefings with a US sergeant-major's 'now hear this!' Things started going awry in November 1997 when Tony Blair wriggled out of an early corruption scandal by drawling, 'I think most people who have dealt with me think I am a pretty straight sorta guy'.
David Cameron used twice as many Americanisms as other recent PMs. Was this a surprise, given he was a pukka Etonian? No. Etonians are chameleons.
One reason they are so often successful is they learn to disguise their elitism. Health Secretary Matt Hancock loved slipping into a transatlantic accent to show how hands-on he was, writes Letts And so Mr Cameron would talk of 'a learning curve' and say 'back in the day', instead of the British 'formerly' or 'in the old days'. He and his Chancellor George Osborne pronounced 'leverage' in the Wall Street manner, the first syllable rhyming with leveret rather than eave.
They wished to depict themselves as masters of a universe that was, to them, led by America. How odd that they so fatally placed their faith in the European Union. That dull dog Sir Keir Starmer, when not droning about this being the time to 'step up', also said 'leverage' in the yankee-doodle way last week.
And he loves to 'double down' on policies. Why not 'accentuate' or 'reinforce' or 'reassert'? As a lawyer, Sir Keir must know precise English. Why demean himself with these American expressions? Is it because he lacks imagination? Sir Keir also has a weakness for 'back-to-back'.
Why not say 'successive'? Conservative MP Simon Hoare recently said 'normalcy' in the Commons. Reform MP Lee Anderson wanted the farm tax 'thrown in the trash can'. Stroud's Labour MP Simon Opher asked about his local 'train station'.
That has driven out the British 'railway station' as much as the American grey squirrel has destroyed native British reds. Matthew Pennycook, planning minister, says 'build out' when he simply means 'build'. Conservative MP Simon Hoare (pictured) recently said 'normalcy' in the Commons.
Reform MP Lee Anderson wanted the farm tax 'thrown in the trash can' Americans love to add a preposition in the mistaken belief that it will add weight. 'Up-lift', 'up-tick' and 'up-surge' all now pollute Westminster debates. In a Commons committee, an expert witness, one Professor Bogg, talked of an 'upsurge in union recognition'.
What, O Bogg, was wrong with an unadorned 'surge'? Every day in the Commons you can hear sentences start with 'so'. There is a blizzard of Californian surfer rising inflexions, a plague of 'going forwards', and little horrors such as 'fess up' and 'driver's licence'. 'Invite' and 'quote' are used as nouns (instead of invitation and quotation).
'Behaviours' is deployed in the plural. My Chinese daughter-in-law is puzzled by how many Britons say 'different to' instead of the correct 'different from'. She is puzzled by our lack of linguistic pride.
'You have a great language,' she says. 'Why do you not cherish it?' David Cameron Keir Starmer Share or comment on this article: QUENTIN LETTS: There's been an uptick in groovy Americanisms - but going forward you can toss them in the trash can! e-mail Add comment Comments 0 Share what you think No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
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