Dialects and lazy speech - there is a difference

This view seems beyond picky- it seems very judgmental. I sincerely hope you do not actually go around “correcting” children’s “lazy” speech. People speak differently-always have, always will.

Practically my first day at Grammar school I had my speech corrected by a teacher in front of the entire class. It was one word and definitely a widely used local pronunciation. I just wanted to curl up and die. I had to remain standing at the front of the class while she gave a mini lecture on how ‘common’ people spoke. Common people like me, as Jarvis Cocker famously said.

By the way paddyann who is this 'master at Westminster' who says we had to speak a certain way? Unfortunately you undermined your point.

It’s called a ‘glottal stop’ Common in Estuary English

Yes, Tony Blair adopted it occasionally when he was in office.

For goodness sake! This sort of comment is snobbish nonsense. There's no such thing as 'lazy speech' just speech! Humans spoke long before language was written down and others felt that they should judge others'spoken language.
If people feel they need to put on a particular way of speaking that alone says something about them.
Communication matters. It's good to talk.
Who are GNers to police how others speak?!

I have no desire to change how I speak we had more than enough of the wee dictators who tried to alter our language when we were at school.
As long as there are people language will vary ,sometimes from one side of the river to the other .Neither is wrong or bad .
This need to make us all sound the same is ridiculous .
I had an amazing teacher in P6 who was happy to not only let people speak naturally but explined the similarities in mant Europen words to ones we used daily ,wean and watter being two I remember .
There were thousands of young people who were denied the right to speak in their native tongue in Scotland and forced to speak English because that what the master at Westminster thought we should do .Consequently they grew up almost scared to speak it outside their homes.
ANYONE who thinks thats either right or just needs to look at themselves.Keep your idea of whats the RIGHT way to speak to yourselves enough harm has been done

I don't have a problem with dialect, it's what makes the language varied. However, I do think that there are times when it's appropriate (as when talking with other speakers of the same dialect) and times when it's not (when speaking to people who don't speak the same way). It must be very difficult for non-native speakers of English to understand what's being said. Consequently I think it's an advantage to be able to moderate one's dialect in certain circumstances (and that doesn't necessarily mean using RP).

Years ago presenters had to have a certain type of voice and clear pronunciation to work for the BBC.
That is still true mostly for newsreaders but many of the general public have regional accents so a mix of accents is surely a good thing.

It’s called a ‘glottal stop’
Common in Estuary English

There are plenty of accents and dialects that 'drop' certain letters or words.

I had my speech 'corrected' so much that I now only speak a 'received' version of my natural speech. This is also slightly to do with the fact that in my adult life I moved around, which knocks the corners off a local accent.
Everywhere I went 'posh' people would tell me 'oh it's not a proper accent they speak here, it's just lazy'. No-one seemed able to define a 'proper accent'.

Now I am back where I belong, and 'local historians' want us to record 'old folk' talking, so our 'lovely local speech' is not lost, dropped letters & ungrammatical constructions and all!
I feel patronised, as if only middle-class people get to decide whose speech is worthy.

Sorry, Franbern, it's a real 'red flag' for me!! And I have lived in areas where the dropped 't' is a feature of the speech.
Of course I don't dispute your right to be irritated by certain ways of speaking.

In the case of the Beeb, I’m sure it’s quite a deliberate thing - I assume they’re terrified of putting off what they probably like to call ‘ordinary people’ by having all ‘posh sounding’, i.e. RP speaking, presenters.

I’ve often thought that this or that presenter who I’m sure wouldn’t normally do it, must have been told to drop the odd T on purpose, in order to sound more ‘ordinary’.

I had the misfortune to need to phone a BT call centre the other day. Much of the speech was like that, half of it was incomprehensible to me. It wasn’t any kind of accent, it was the sheer speed at which they were speaking which led them to slurring their words.

I think they may have targets to meet but if someone is asking them to repeat half of what they say, it’s difficult to see how that can save time.

I speak much the same as "for'ee" five, as do most people I know, due the fact that we're all from the same area.

I think it's picky to suggest we're all lazy, but there will be plenty who agree with you.