Every cloud has a silver lining and maybe one effect of the recession might just be to reduce the ever-rising tide of jargon.

The Local Government Association has launched a drive to do away with buzz phrases like “stakeholder “ and “best practice.”

The Association says that in a recession, people need to be told clearly and in plain English what options are available to them, particularly in the field of finance.  ”Unless information is given to people to explain what help they can get, then it could well lead to more people ending up homeless or bankrupt,” it warns.

Just think - we may no longer have to suffer the indignity of having emails “cascaded” down to us or be forced to drink our coffee in fatuous ”breakout” rooms. We might become passengers again instead of ”customers” — we might even see the end of the phrase “going forward” (though that, surely, will be the ultimate test).

Do you have any particular pieces of official or office jargon you would like to see disappear?

The trouble with banking, a private equity chief told a hearing of MPs this week, is that it has just become “too damn complicated” and needs to get back to basics.

Many readers might agree with those refreshingly candid words — and they might think too that it’s not just banking that has become tangled up in glue.

“It used to be so easy — now it takes for ever,” we sigh in unison.

Maybe the Internet is partly to blame. It was supposed to simplify things but, for many, it has made whole areas of life vastly more frustrating. “Simply click” may be meant as a breezy invitation to a stress-free transaction — but in reality it is often the gateway to Hell.

Need help? – simply phone our 24/7 advisers in Asia. (But let’s not go there…)

Could the apparent growth of office bureaucracy also be playing its part? Commentators have frequently bewailed the growing tide of fussy, box-ticking procedure and the swelling ranks of email-happy bureaucrats with grand-sounding titles. Got any of those?

Do you find any particular areas of home or office life more complicated than they used to be?

If so, simply click on that “post comment” link down there. Easy eh?