Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

The home of the English language is in dire need of a lesson on how to use it. Well, to be honest, the Police Chiefs (Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) need a remedial course on how to write coherently. Read this from their response to a proposed reform initiative:

The promise of reform which the Green Paper heralds holds much for the public and Service alike; local policing, customised to local need with authentic answerability, strengthened accountabilities at force level through reforms to police authorities and HMIC, performance management at the service of localities with targets and plans tailored to local needs, the end of centrally-engineered one size fits all initiatives, an intelligent approach to cutting red tape through redesign of processes and cultures, a renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities.

If you read the sentence – and it is indeed ONE sentence – you kind of get the general idea of what they are saying… kind of. Maybe…

I think the ACPO have gotten all hot ‘n bothered about possible reform of the the current red tape heavy policing system. I think… But I’m still pondering “amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities”. Do you think they mean “develop flexible strategies to deal with the complexities of modern policing”?

My head hurts now. I have a literacy headache. Or is that a mangled grammar migraine? I’m going to go and have a coffee… and not think about that sentence any longer.

Stumble it!