Drumm’s choice words highlight need to call time on foul language

DAVID DRUMM has shocked and provoked me into attempting remedial action. Not in relation to my finances, thankfully. (I can’t blame him for the state of those, other than the impact of the higher taxes we all pay because of the incompetence of him and others in the stewardship of Anglo Irish Bank). No, it’s something else for which he has become famous that worries me about my own behaviour: the use of what is often called “bad” or “foul” language.

The language deployed by the former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive, as so “colourfully” audible on the so-called Anglo tapes has got me thinking about my own proclivity in regard to use of the word ‘f***’ and other swear terms. Drumm is not alone in peppering his conversation with the Anglo-Saxon vernacular and for dropping in other offensive words effortlessly and almost as if without thought. Drumm may be a particularly bad example of this increasingly common tendency; in the tapes he can hardly form a sentence without throwing the f-word as a noun, verb or adjective. But so do many others and to my shame, so occasionally do I. It’s got to stop.

This thinking has been prompted by a surprising reaction I received from many listeners on the recent broadcast of extracts from the Anglo tapes on The Last Word. Anticipating adverse reaction to the broadcasting of the f-word in full — without the often used bleeps or bells to cover the word — I apologised in advance for their use. Nobody complained about their inclusion. The language was secondary to the substance of misleading and disrespecting the State. Instead, however, a number of listeners castigated me for apologising for it. I was told this is the way people talk in their day-to-day lives, it should not be hidden from us and apologies did not need to be made because it is no big deal.