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Harman defies 'wellderly' ban

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11th March 2010

Commons leader Harriet Harman has said she is a "victim of an unfair banning order", following a report that branded the term "wellderly" as impenetrable.

The Equality minister coined the term "wellderly" to describe "a new cohort of well, active, healthy older people".

During questions on future Commons business, Liberal Democrat business spokesperson David Heath called for a debate on political "jargon".

He noted that the Local Government Association (LGA) had issued a book on banned jargon and said a "key exhibit" had been the term "coined" by Harman.

The report highlighted words including 'wellderly', 'webinar', 'disbenefits' and 'under-capacitated' as new forms of jargon being used by the public sector.

The "impenetrable phrases" are on a list of 250 "banned words" outlined by the LGA which represents local authorities in England and Wales.

It said government departments, local authorities and quangos were all guilty of crimes against the English language.

Harman said news of the report was "extremely bad news", with the term having hardly "got off the ground".

She told MPs: "I was supposed to be the person that bans things all the time and now I discover I'm the victim of an unfair banning order."

Harman said the term was used as people needed to recognise that most of the older generation is fit, well and active.

She added: "They are the well elderly, they are the wellderly and I'm afraid that's one banning order I'm not submitting to."

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