Britain's Local Government Association has published a list of 200 words to be avoided if town bureaucracies would like to communicate effectively with their constituents. Words to be shunned include taxonomy, re-baselining, mainstreaming, synergies, enabler, functionality, fast-track as a verb, leverage, outsourced, proactive, promulgate, tranche and vision. ("Metric" is apparently OK.) These are words that "public sector bodies should avoid when talking to people about the work they do and the services they provide," the LGA says.

Is this a blow against liberty, as Tyler Cowen implies? Or a sensible prescription against cant and vagueness? Last fall some local British councils discouraged the use of Latin phrases such as vice versa and pro rata, on the same grounds. Cambridge classics donna Mary Beard called it "the linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing," according to the BBC.