'Homeless' is another example - used by us ordinary folk to mean 'people who don't have a building to sleep in' and defined by officials to mean ... actually it's quite hard to say what officials mean by it. Something like "people who either don't have a permanent place to live or are in the wrong sort of rental, but almost all of whom are in some sort of housing every night." I assume someone thought they could get an advantage from being able to say there were way more homeless people, so they rewrote the definition.
'Suspended sentence' is another that gets my goat. As far as I can tell it means "Not in any sense a sentence. We agreed you committed this crime, but we're letting you get away scott free. The number of years listed after the suspended sentence is just a guide to what you could have won if we'd been doing the 'justice' part of justice system that day."
"The Welsh government has a goal for Wales to be smoke-free by 2030, meaning a prevalence rate [of smoking] in adults of 5% or less."
Reminds me of how Tic Tacs are "sugar free" even though they're nearly entirely sugar, because a single serving is one Tic Tac and it contains a negligible amount of sugar because it's so small in total.
'Homeless' is another example - used by us ordinary folk to mean 'people who don't have a building to sleep in' and defined by officials to mean ... actually it's quite hard to say what officials mean by it. Something like "people who either don't have a permanent place to live or are in the wrong sort of rental, but almost all of whom are in some sort of housing every night." I assume someone thought they could get an advantage from being able to say there were way more homeless people, so they rewrote the definition.
'Suspended sentence' is another that gets my goat. As far as I can tell it means "Not in any sense a sentence. We agreed you committed this crime, but we're letting you get away scott free. The number of years listed after the suspended sentence is just a guide to what you could have won if we'd been doing the 'justice' part of justice system that day."
Collateral Damage has to be the most chilling. It's time for an update.
An extremely good point.
Saw another one today in https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyq3xr9ql5o
"The Welsh government has a goal for Wales to be smoke-free by 2030, meaning a prevalence rate [of smoking] in adults of 5% or less."
Reminds me of how Tic Tacs are "sugar free" even though they're nearly entirely sugar, because a single serving is one Tic Tac and it contains a negligible amount of sugar because it's so small in total.
Yes, that is a very good one! One would assume 'smoke-free' meant fully illegal, like in prohibition.
That Tic-Tac fact is also absurd.