Deliver

Towards the end of her short-lived premiership, Liz Truss did a sixteen-minute television interview in course which she said ‘deliver’ thirty-three times.1 It was as if believed that could dispel evidence failure, and reassert lost sense business usual, by merely uttering word. didn't work; iterations became more frequent desperate conversation went on. But it gave an otherwise bland performance weird Gothic undertone; this part story when elixir is losing its efficacy, luckless magician resorts to swigs just keep going. What about rather colourless verb suggests such promise power? I will deliver bold plan cut taxes grow our economy. on energy crisis, dealing with people's bills, but also long term issues we have supply. And National Health Service. … My friends, know deliver, deliver. great victory for Conservative Party 2024.2 As well repeated incantation, passage performs interesting slippage. At first is, ordinary language, solidly transitive verb: ‘I plan’. Almost at once, however, gives way elusive construction: not something something. This still predicate sorts, relationship vague: proposed delivery general area indicated noun, there no telling what contains. attenuated transitivity halfway house; third stage object vanishes altogether, so longer anything, or even simply Finally, twist close speech comes wit, evaporated direct suddenly returns: 2024 election. So verb, all along! The surprise last sentence character pulling semantic rabbit out increasingly empty-looking syntactic hat, got round applause trick evidently seeking. Of these transitions are original invention Truss's speechwriters. Rather, sleepwalking through some passages word's modern history. Its use contemporary politics essentially metaphor drawn from sphere business. A prospective government undertakes policy you voted same Amazon delivers article ordered. basis commercial practice then licenses emergent preposition: nineteenth twentieth centuries, markets complex, transactions standardised, less commonly simple face-to-face conveyance, often execution contract – vendor delivering ‘on’ pre-existing agreement. might be called moral dimension usage turned handover physical item into fulfilment promise. principle informed colloquial ‘to goods’. OED traces US political discourse far back 1870s, usually negative (that public figure has undertaken do something, delivered goods). Passing expression formed, think, royal road quasi-absolute over time ‘the goods’ implicit, people spoke ‘delivering’ tout court. dictionary's earliest instance intransitive illuminating. In Fred Astaire's memoirs, published 1959, he wrote, horror making good, speak’. Chronologically outlier, writer's hesitation between expressions point complete formula almost needed. Here, then, can see ready-made ‘we deliver’ emerging American carapace ‘he pedigree goes explain talismanic resonance. Because background, speaker who, precisely, means business: how most politicians, indeed CEOs, want sound. tone already audible quotation Astaire: although artist, nonetheless speaks unpretentious hoofer sure get they've paid for. time, option leave partly wholly unstated releases need specify goods they promising (or claiming already). Rhetorically, word makes possible strike robustly practical note without committing any definite action handy combination boldness self-protection. That enough make politically useful; magical paradoxically, power depoliticise. trope effect portraying state service provider succeeds fails efforts give citizen-consumers want. when, example, says NHS, hopes understood saying going work doctors nurses, treated promptly Political around NHS privatisation, pay, competing priorities elided suggestion ideologically innocent transaction: goods. appropriate, should loom large vocabulary politician who seems unusually naive faith market forces. There clear really required remove obstacles whatever impersonal workings find optimal. device taking politics. claim left ideology behind highly ideological. personally much being cunning talking clichés: recent times idea ‘delivery’ spread across corporate relentlessly metaphoric worn away. Footballers don't; national governments undertake net zero; managers set targets growth, quality, equality; universities produce documents detailing their vision; restaurants exceptional dining experience. heard ANC described party post-apartheid era South Africa. few years ago wave spam e-mails promised Viagra would enable men orgasms. necessary unreconstructed Marxist question here capitalist ideology: viral locution acquiring commodity universal prototype every kind successful interaction. therefore worth step order surprised afresh grotesque inappropriateness habitual applications. Sexual pleasure, higher education postcolonial revolution fundamentally different kinds thing, yet desolately abstract verbal world dropped off doors identical packaging. common, despite differences, involve interpersonal actions energies mean participants don't take new stuff, feel act ways, transform own lives them. Knowledge human potential change presumably magic word, pronounced powerful wizards than Truss, designed suppress. issue CQ, argued ‘challenging’ serves reconcile actual difficulty regime positive thinking, quoted spokesman Learjet company announcing flagship aircraft discontinued: ‘given challenging dynamics, made difficult decision production’. Struck one irony (market conditions declining challenge), failed another: immediately very apparently avoiding. right, say ‘difficult’, registers contexts where routinely used thing. case euphemism all? prompted, practically eve publication CQ 64.3, verbiage surrounding restoration financial orthodoxy UK Jeremy Hunt, parachuted calm bond markets, toured shows morning 15 October, ‘difficult’ single-mindedly had been days earlier. According my argument, ‘challenges’ Rishi Sunak front runner Prime Minister week later, did. Hunt's line. We decisions ahead. Spending rise like. don’t think we’re austerity 2010 budgets deal pressure. must eye-watering difficulty. counts phrase ‘difficult decisions’ demonstrates stability possessing phrasal synonyms: ‘tough choices’ easy crisis. immediate context too clear, fact spending cuts. other words, too. works, since cuts cause suffering unpopular, applied ostentatious reluctance. ‘difficulty’ intellectual psychological: preparing nasty, struggles against his niceness. old-school headmaster prefaces your punishment hurt him hurts you. also, leadership quality: someone strength weaker souls opt life. exception prevalence ‘challenging’; rather, functionality. By performing many former tasks frees up latter new, moralised mendacious role.