#corpospeak

At my recent GP’s patient participation meeting (trying to get them to fix their many problems), several patients used the word incompetent about reception staff. Not careless, not under-trained — "incompetent". The practice manager’s summary on wrap-up: “We’re facing training challenges.”

I pushed back: “I think we said incompetent.” She replied: “I was being diplomatic.” Then we moved on...

That was probably sensible in the room (no need for the distraction over semantics). But here’s the thing: if you downgrade incompetence to a “training challenge,” you all but guarantee nothing will change. Training challenges are easy — PDF modules, refresher courses, maybe a workshop. Incompetence isn’t. Incompetence means people who are disengaged, burnt out, or actively hostile to the patients they’re supposed to help. You can’t train that away. You have to either change the system and the staff, or replace them. And that requires naming the problem honestly.

This isn’t just a healthcare thing. It’s the entire operating mode of UK Labour under Starmer. Every crisis is framed as a “challenge.” Structural wealth extraction? A productivity challenge. Exploitation baked into gig work? A regulation challenge. House-building collapse? A planning challenge.

Everything becomes small, manageable, “reasonable” — because the people at the top are too busy being diplomatic to those with power to risk saying what’s true: these aren’t challenges, they’re rot. And rot doesn’t shift because you call it something nicer.