Metro, Friday 28 August 2026
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher could face bankruptcy after HM Revenue and Customs issued a petition against him over an unpaid tax bill. An HMRC spokesperson said: "We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and do everything we can to help those who engage with us to get out of debt." A spokesperson for Carragher told the BBC the matter "should have been resolved sooner," calling it "a private tax matter" that "will not proceed any further and will be resolved imminently."
HMRC calls its own bankruptcy petition a supportive approach. Carragher's side calls the same petition a private matter, already as good as resolved. Neither description mentions a courtroom, because the language available to both sides is built to avoid naming what a petition against an individual actually is until it has already happened to someone with less to spend on making it sound otherwise.
The individual is threatened with penalties and prosecution before any wrongdoing is established. The institution, after wrongdoing is established, negotiates a suspension of prosecution.The Performance of Obedience, Ch. 2
This entry treats the language used around a single unpaid tax bill, supportive from the pursuing department, private and imminent from the person pursued, as an illustration of the manuscript's account of how the same enforcement action reads differently depending on who is describing it.