Use words with care

June 16, 2025

Here’s a novel and “innovative” idea. Let’s stop talking about raising our defence spending, let’s stop talking about the threat from China, Russia and refugees. Let’s stop beating the drums of war in any sphere.

Let’s replace words like fight, conquer and battle (eg fight against COVID, conquering inflation, battle against climate change) and start using our language to remember the power of diplomacy – based on co-operation and focused on our shared humanity.

Let’s “work with”, “co-operate on”, and “open dialogue about”; let’s “reach consensus”, “acknowledge our shared goals”, and actually remind ourselves we are on a rock, hurtling through the vacuum of space – together.