AND FINALLY: Qantas-speak

Qantas has advised staff that using words such as mum, dad, husband and wife might offend passengers.

Words like love, honey and darling are also on the blacklist, according to material posted on the Qantas intranet as part of the airline's 'Spirit of Inclusion' month and subsequently leaked to  The Daily Telegraph  in Sydney.

It suggested “gender-specific” terms such as husband and wife could be seen to exclude same-sex couples, while addressing passengers as mum and dad might upset single-parent families.

Qantas said the material was for internal discussion on workplace inclusivity and it had not changed any rules or imposed any new policies or procedures.

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Catherine Chetwynd, United Kingdom

Quite bizarre, not least because husband and wife do NOT exclude same sex couples, except that they are both either husband or wife. And surely, anyone would only address their own parent as mum or dad; or have I missed something?