Letter: Britspeak, a folly of yoofitis

Dr Richard Cawldren
Saturday 06 April 1996 23:02 BST
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HAVING read "Can you talk Britspeak?" (Real Life, 24 March), I diagnose a classic case of yoofitis.

This affects mainly middle-aged executives in the media, producing the delusion that most of their potential readers (or listeners) are under 25 and must be wooed frantically in their own language (or Britspeak). Sufferers, with their attempts to sound like their own children, arouse irritation among their peers and amused contempt from the young.

Treatment is straightforward. Sufferers should try reciting a little- acknowledged fact: most of our population is over 35 and, due to demographic changes, will soon be over 40.

Dr Richard Cawldren

London W14

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