A maddening announcement

On Sunday I went to Norwich, a journey that involved three trains, one underground and two overground. In the course of this journey I heard that grating, infuriating, barely-grammatical announcement ‘If you see something that doesn’t look right, please tell a member of staff. We’ll sort it. See it, say it, sorted’ no fewer than fourteen times. Yes, fourteen. FOURTEEN! What the hell is going on? The slogan is everywhere, on all rail networks, blaring out of loudspeakers at every station. And plastered all over posters too. It’s driving me to a frenzy of irritation. I last blogged about this a year ago – see https://brandonrobshawtheenglishlanguage.com/2019/02/20/see-it-say-it-shut-up/

– and since then it has got worse, not better. I try to share my irritation by making exasperated, sympathy-seeking faces at other commuters when I hear it but they rarely respond. Perhaps they don’t find it as maddenng as I do.

But I am warning whoever is responsible for this fatuous announcement. No one responds well to being nagged. If I do see something that doesn’t look right, there’s no way I’m going to tell a member of staff about it. I’ll keep it to myself.

Advertisement