I just heard the “Budget Response” by the Shadow Chancellor, George Osbourne. It was on after “The World Tonight” and I was only half listening to it. However, I was appalled to hear him, in a major radio (and I assume this was just the audio of the TV version so on TV as well) address use the phrase “we’re gonna do X” not once but twice in a row, instead of “we’re going to do X”. This man has pretensions (and a moderate chance) of becoming the Finance Minster of the world’s fourth largest economy within a couple of years. Is this an example of trying to “connect” with “yoof” (you know, I do that all the time without debasing my English to “street” level) or is he really incapable of delivering a speech in standard English. Accents are one thing and so long as it’s understandable I’m quite pleased to hear a variety on Radio 4 (I quite like the gentle tones of the chap with the Caribbean accent they have doing continuity announcements) but there’s a reason “standard” English is used, because it’s more easily understandable to all.

Middle-aged, middle class, Radio 4 listener, now feeling like “annoyed of Kawasaki”.