We’ve recently created a ‘political translator’ after one of our surveys revealed that 9 out of 10 young people believe that all politicians lie.
We asked the 2,000 respondents what common phrases politicians use that confuse them, so we could translate them.
Here are the phrases translated from the context it’s used in:
| The phrase | What the politician means | What it gets translated to |
| My honourable friend | Addressing a member of the same party | He’s after my job, I know it |
| My honourable colleague | Addressing a member of a different party | Honourable? Yeah right! He’d sell him own mother for a chance to be in power. |
| Brexit means Brexit | A slogan used by Theresa May to reassure the public on Brexit | Brexit means bloody nothing – can I hide under this rock until it’s over? |
| I thank the Minister for that response | Thank you to the head of department | I honestly couldn’t give a flying F about your opinion |
| I pay tribute to my honourable friend | Congratulating a colleague | I’m jealous you thought of that idea and not me |
| You were right to draw attention to this, Mr Speaker | A point needs clarifying to the main person in Parliament | I was doing great until you called me out |
| We are delivering on our manifesto commitment | We are doing what we promised in our campaign | We’ve delivered the bare minimum on the promise we made to get more votes *pats self on back* |
| My honourable friend has misunderstood me | My colleague has made a mistake | Shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about |
| Would my honourable friend like to reflect on her earlier answer to a question, in which she may have inadvertently misled the House? | My colleague misunderstood earlier, can they reassess what they said | If you think I’m going to let you get away with that blatant lie you’ve got another thing coming! |
| Strong and Stable | A slogan used in the Conservatives re-election campaign | More like Weak and Wobbly – we don’t have a clue |
| Phase out university tuition fees within six years. Scrap fees for final-year students immediately | Liberal Democrats pledge to abolish university tuition fees | We’ll say whatever we have to in order to have a shot at power |
These phrases are commonly used during political debates, campaigns and Prime Minister’s Questions, which is usually when the public hear from politicians the most.
Matteo Bergamini, founder of Shout Out UK said;
“We commissioned the survey to get an idea of what young people think of politicians and if they trust them; the clear answer is no. We decided to have a bit of fun with it and have had great feedback from our respondents about our ‘political translator’.
“However, this shows us a disappointing reality for young people – that many do not believe a word coming out of a politician’s mouth. I hope this highlights to politicians the perception members of the public have about them, and hopefully this will compel them to actually speak truthfully – and more naturally – to their constituents.”
