Brave new words of apocalyptic promise

IT's emotional, apocalyptic and can end up meaning nothing at all. The Dome has already given us a new invention for the millennium: Domespeak, writes David Lister.

As the New Millennium Experience unveiled some of the Dome's contents yesterday, they did so in language that, perhaps fittingly for the new millennium, seems a mixture of sci-fi movie and Blairite Cool Britannia. And, being bashful souls at the Experience, they would not own up to who had written the script.

Domespeak may be apocalyptic in its promises, " ... exhibits will open up the choices facing humankind ...", but the zones seem to have been named by a failed headline writer. One can live with Spirit Level for the religious zone, but Licensed to Skill for the world of work just does not pass the cringe factor.

Perhaps the latter was intended as a light antidote to the description of the exhibit itself. Who can say what "the animatronic orchestra of work" actually means. Presumably the same person who can answer the question describing the Dreamscape zone: "Is rest a state of stagnation, or a state of healing, recovery, preparation and regeneration?" That's a tricky one. I'll have to lie down and try to work it out.