Getting out?

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language' Some of his crimes are merely amusing, though possibly personally painful - e.g. 'saddle myself with a statistical fence' -but there's a more sinister political content to it.

George Orwell, who coined the term 'double-speak', pointed to the technique of politicians who camouflaged themselves in a kind of verbal rhubarb in order to speak the unspeakable.

Haig's tortured and tortuous language is clearly aimed at making his indefensible policies appear bland and boring. Still, he good company. Last year's winner was Ronald Reagan. SECURITY fears were being voicedd after a top-level break-out from Wormwood Scrubs. John McCarthy, who describes himself as the manager of a *large penal dustbin', has managed to leap the wall of bureaucracy and secrecy, and smuggle himself into the letters column of the Times. There, he reveals, he has been driven because 'his patience and tolerance are finally exhausted' He 'did not join the prison service to manage overcrowded cattle p ns, nor did I join to run a pr SOn where the interests of the individuals have to be sacrificed continually to the interests of the institution' There is a strong hint in his letter that if conditions do not improve, he and other prison governors will look for early retire. ment or other ways of making a living.

The idea of early retire -ment from prison is, reportedly, very popular among the inmates, too.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday November 26, 1981 Page 14 26,1981 Page 14