What is… offer?

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One of the problems with jargon is that it can seem like normal language.

Few of us are, in reality, rushing round the office looking for 'low hanging fruit' or challenging colleagues to do some 'blue-sky thinking'. But it's the insidious little words that can catch us unawares.

In fact, if we don't embellish our conversation with a few choice nuggets of fashionable meaninglessness, we may feel we sound unprofessional.

When not referring to money, the word 'offer' comes into this category. Apparently innocuous, it has segued from marketing into office-speak — not to mention Whitehall-ese.

In this context, 'offer' means 'what we are offering'. Relating also to the asking price or 'offer price' that a seller is willing to accept for a particular item, or a 'special offer' on discounted goods or services, it is part of a pervasive trend to 'monetise' the language of central and local government.

Is this a bad thing? Money certainly talks, but it doesn't say everything. The issue here is that we use terms like this without even being aware of it. As George Orwell warned in 1984, the peril of spouting jargon (or newspeak) is that we only have the thoughts
that words allow us to have. The 'offer' here is that the jargon of finance is acceptable in government. Perhaps we bought that one a long time ago.