News that England manager Fabio Capello uses a vocabulary of just 100 words to address his players could be taken in one of two ways.

Either we suppose it’s very bad news for the glorious English language to be so limited in this way, or we applaud Capello – whose English isn’t brilliant, we know – for realising that when it comes to delivering a message less can be more.

I’ve sat in many a council meeting – parish, borough, and county – as a reporter taking notes. I quickly learned that after the first two or three councillors had spoken, there would be very little else of interest to note down. Each subsequent speaker tended to reiterate what had already been said and – unless they came up with a very good soundbite indeed – they rarely added anything new to the debate.

Less is definitely more when it comes to communication, both written and verbal, in business. To write, reiterate and go on at length usually puts the reader and listener off (unless you have the verbal dexterity of, for example, Stephen Fry - whose verbosity is highly entertaining.)

Writing good website copy, newsletters and press releases involves getting to the point quickly so the reader is in no doubt about the message.

So, in the interests of brevity, I’ll finish this blog - hopefully, point made.