Worst (political) jargon of the week: Supermajority
At City PM, we’ve long been fighting the evil misuses of language. But to mark election season, we’ve decided to venture out of the comfort of corporatopia and into the political wilderness. After all, if there’s anything we know about politicians, it’s that they’d rather say anything than what they actually mean. This week: the supermajority.
What does it mean?
The eclipse of a waning organism by a massive new entity. A supermajority normally looms during the last evolutionary stages of a massive Tory reign, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. Indeed, scientists have identified several types of supermajority – with the most recent discovery being of a particularly noxious kind.
Who uses it?
Scientists, hacks, Mancunian rockstars and the Conservative Party are the most frequent users of the term, united in their awe and fear of the colossal explosion of a star and the dawn of a new era.
Could be confused with:
- The superloop
- The super sewer
- A word with a meaning beyond ‘a really great majority’
Should we be worried?
Undoubtedly. A supermajority is a phenomenal event of space-altering significance. They are extremely powerful, sending energetic radiation and blast waves of ejected gas far into space. If a supermajority were to occur within about 25 light-years of Westminster, the entire planet would probably lose its atmosphere, and all life would perish.
How do we get rid of it?
Happily, a tenacious field of journalism experts have pointed out that whilst the supermajority is a meaningful term in the USA, India, Canada and Australia, it is in fact meaningless and an impossibility in the UK. These hack-perts have pointed out that over here in Blighty, nothing is super (even if the label is whacked onto the beginning of a bus service or a sewer).
So, give the next Brit you encounter who has used the term ‘supermajority’ a load of that factual accuracy – it should bring them straight back down to earth.