![]() I came to realise that Plain English Campaign has a wide importance, even beyond the instances that Chrissie herself articulates so passionately. None of us in our worlds, whether high and mighty or relatively lowly, hasn't come across jargon and complicated material. For all my intellectual arrogance, it actually applied to me. To realise and accept just how vital that message really is. It was only later that I had time to think about what she said. What she stated, very plainly, was that people had a right to access to information. And I sat there thinking 'What is this woman on?' She was eulogising, she was evangelising, and I couldn't relate at all to what she was talking about. I sat opposite her at her desk and she told me stories of some of her experiences which many of us will be familiar with - how Plain English Campaign had been born and what her objectives were. I came up to New Mills on my own and was granted an audience with Chrissie Maher. This is what I thought about Plain English Campaign. They are chased and hunted down, and several times during the film, the Sundance Kid turns to Butch Cassidy and says 'Who are they'' in genuine inquisitiveness. I don't know if you are familiar with the film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. I decided that I would go and visit Plain English Campaign and see how they did it. I'll never forget the moment when I looked at the document and realised just how much value these people had added by looking at it from the customer's perspective. ![]() I have to say that when Plain English Campaign finished with the document it was supremely better than anything we had ever sent out. We weren't truly seeing it from their perspective and through their eyes. ![]() Our initial reaction was of course 'What do they think they're playing at?' But when we came to look at it, we learnt a very powerful lesson - we weren't truly empathising with our customers. When we opened the package a week or so later, already very conscious of the time that had already gone by, we were astounded to see just how much red ink there was over our 'wonderful' document that we had sent off, basically to be rubber stamped. The Plain English Campaign editors worked through the document and sent it back. There are many people in the room that will recognise the experience that we then went through. Because we thought we were the ace team anyway, this was not going to be a particular problem. Suddenly it occurred to me, when we were already 90% of the way through the production, that we should Crystal Mark the document. I don't know what made me think of it, but it's like that wonderful scene in 'The Snowman' when the boy doesn't know why, but suddenly it occurs to him to go outside and build a snowman. So we set ourselves the target of producing a pack that was better than the rest. But what they were sending was not particularly sparkling or exciting. But there were companies out there that were frankly ahead of us. We found that most companies sent nothing. I decided that it really wasn't on that we didn't send new members of Nat West a welcome letter. But there may still be a few people in the room that still need some converting or haven't had sufficient opportunity to test what Plain English Campaign can do for them. The lessons that I can share with you, many will immediately empathise with. I would like to share some of my experiences of transacting business with Plain English Campaign. And for me, in my diary, this is one of those unmissable events. You all know you get invited to a number of events, some of which you don't really want to go to, and there are very few events that are truly unmissable. It's a real pleasure and an honour to be here today. Peter Hammonds was the Company Secretary at Natwest Bank at the time. In 2000, we held a Crystal Clear Day on which we honoured various people who have made a real contribution to plain English. Peter Hammonds' speech on Crystal Clear Day
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