What is the precise mechanism which makes people start to talk in arch post-modern jargon?

Like this:  Labour needs to provide a convincing new narrative if left-of-centre politics are to remain the driving force in Britain.

Or this:  Mr Brown and Mr Darling must find new ways of telling a story … a change of narrative will not be easy for them.

And this:  An effective Labour narrative on the environment can help us win back many of the middle-class voters…

Polly:  A new leader urgently needs to find a way to tell Labour’s narrative anew.

Countless tragic Labour narratives around at the moment, but a cursory Google search reveals that the Conservatives have plenty too.

I railed against this horrible n-word when it started being used by the European Directorate of the FCO.

It conveys a sense of unserious sly, slippery subjectivity.

Of made-up fiction, not hard facts. Of fleeting disloyalty to Ideas as to Purpose.

"Wo, that narrative is not working, so let’s get another one."

Memo to next Government:

Send back crossly any submission or draft speech with this odious word used in that creepy sense.

Have policies, not stories. Take responsibility for them.