UK government’s advice on word ‘Brexit’ raises eyebrows

The British government has advised its employees to refrain from the word ‘Brexit’ in official communication and to replace it with the exact date of when the UK left the EU. The directive has been criticized on social media.

 “You can use the term ‘Brexit’ to provide historical context, but it’s better to use specific dates where possible,” reads the official style guide which “covers style, spelling and grammar conventions” for all content published on the government’s website.

The guidance, which was updated on December 8 but went largely unnoticed by the media upon release, recommends using “31 December 2020” instead of “Brexit” or “when the UK left the EU”. It also advises to avoid the expressions “during the transition period” and “after the transition period” by replacing them with “31 December 2020” and “after 1 January 2021,” respectively.

The guidance, along with a similar measure adopted by the Welsh government, has left many Brits irritated, with some expressing their discontent on social media.

“Whitehall is determined to expunge Brexit from the political lexicon. Quasi Stalinist semantic engineering hits the world of officialdom,” one of the users tweeted, with another noting that “successful projects don’t usually need to have their names removed from official usage”