Verbal carnage Mother was never short of Cockney wisdom and had a basic distrust of excess, especially when it came to language; anyone spouting to impress would be loudly accused of ‘swallowing a bloody dictionary’. She dismissed any politician with ‘just vote for the bugger and hope he shuts up! Salesmen fared worse by being cast as ‘all mouth and no trousers’. She would, I feel, have been ill-equipped for today’s language; anyone spouting the obscure would be called upon for a simple translation, then told ‘if that’s what you meant, why… Read More