There are worse words than 'workshop'. One beloved of our absurd government is 'focus group', though I know that is, strictly speaking, a phrase. Does Obama use focus groups? Do you? And then there's the specialised meaning of 'debate', which means, 'We'll let you talk about this for weeks and then we'll do what we were going to in the first place.'
And, talking about focus, what about 'stay focussed', which means, don't let any considerations about honour or plain dealing or telling the truth get in the way of doing something rather nasty. Workshop is a nice thing. You listen. You don't just lay down the law.
Amis would undoubtedly have hated to hear it used as a verb.
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