Dear LPG,

I was looking at an online list of the most overused phrases in the UK, and I think a couple have been missed; let me explain… 

Despite all the changes in British law, we still get more than the odd telephone call, usually dressed up as a survey.  We all know the format by now.  The introduction starts with that identifying question, which asks you to confirm your name or address.  Then comes that age-old cliché, ‘I’m not trying to sell you anything’, which, if you have not worked it out already, has to be the alarm bell that pre-empts a sales call. However, you will probably have put the phone down after offering that other celebrated collection of words, ‘NO, not today, thank you’ before they get that far.

The internet tells us that despite a drastic crackdown, the average family is likely to receive a minimum of six of these calls per week. I am sure that most people reading this will think that estimate is pretty conservative. 

Time was when the assault was also battering down your front door, although I think that most people will agree when I say that the law has managed to calm that source of attack down a little.  Did you know that, according to the internet, the first recorded cold call was made in 1873 when an American called John Patterson invented the original format for the sales pattern we are now so used to?  That’s 150 years of being nagged… 

We like to think that we are now much more prepared when spotting the signs, although those in the industry constantly find new ways to disguise that age-old verbal approach.  It has to be noted that visiting an online video so often is preceded by a person offering the latest method of cold calling, that pre-recorded sincere man or lady who introduces what appears to be a short advert at first but leaves you not clicking on the video that you were waiting to see for much longer than you first anticipated. At the same time, you get drawn in if you are not careful.

The sad thing is that the in-store self-service checkout tills, automatic vending machines and internet shopping trends have minimised the scope for many potential workers. At the same time, our population gets bigger and bigger.  With fewer jobs available for quite a significant section of our younger community who see many of the luxuries of days gone by as today’s necessities, in a world where having the most up-to-date fashionable thing influences more unnecessary waste than ever, the need to be a successful consumer while trying to see old ideas in new ways is one of the few industries that is still open for the moment, at least. The money to feed our modern needs has to come from somewhere.  Perhaps it is the case that selling a money-making dream is one way of being a part of it…

Just a thought 

BV, Catford.

BV shares an internet list of common phrases illustrating the omission in question… 

(►►►)