§ 1. Mr. Peytonasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will expunge from the official vocabulary of his Department the phrase, "detrimental to the visual amentities of the locality", and inform planning authorities of his action.
§ The Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs (Dr. Charles Hill)I will certainly instruct my Department to avoid this phrase wherever it can.
§ Mr. PeytonWhile I welcome that reply, may I ask my right hon. Friend if he does not think it inconceivable that anyone who gets into the habit of using such horrid language as this could possibly exercise the kind of standards of taste required? Does he not think that he and his colleagues should do something at an early date to check this tide of literary sludge which is creeping out all over the language from Whitehall?
§ Dr. HillThe trouble is that to use plain English and to say that what is proposed is downright ugly or in shocking taste may be painful, if not actionable. To be blunt but yet not rude is skilled work, but we do our best.