More anguished English from our dear leaders

James Purnell, the new secretary of state for culture, media and sport, invented a new word today. While talking about his desire to stop the arts in the UK having to focus on targets he said:

“The fact that it’s in the bloodstream allows us to move away from what could risk becoming a sort of top-down, targets-led approach which I’m calling targetolatry: this idea that you turn targets into something you actually fetishise.”

Targetolatry? Oh dear… the sentiment behind the statement is admirable, but why spoil it all by murdering the English language in a way only politicians and business people can? It’s beyond me. No one else will call it targetolatry, so why should he? Ridiculous. (Thanks to a story in the Media Guardian for that).