'Sofa of despair’': It's the Coalition buzz-phrase generator

The Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, visited Leicester County Hall and expressed his desire to get people who don’t have jobs “off

the sofa of despair


It’s not the first ham-fisted buzz-phrase to be put forward by members of the Coalition Government, remember Nick Clegg’s “alarm-clock Britain”?


To lend our busy ministers a hand, here’s a cut-out-and-keep tool for creating new, aspirational buzz-phrases.


You are welcome.


Choose a verb
Throw, alight, despatch, reach, lift, raise, tear

Choose a pronoun
Yourself, everybody, us, them

Choose a preposition
On, for, to, of, from + the


Choose an object
Broken, settee, untrimmed, hedge, iffy kettle, B-road, musty attic, plastic bag, slag heap +of


Choose a feeling
Despair, sorrow, hope, joy, aspiration, alienation, unemployment
=
Tear yourself from the B-road of alienation