It's both tough and difficult - probably

Tough as opposed to Difficult…

I am always keen to ensure that I is always correct in the words what I use when writing, and I seem to have heard the words tough and difficult a lot recently. I hear them daily about decisions other people make badly on our behalf, but I wondered whether they meant the same thing.

Tough as an adjective can mean: Tough boots for climbers - This steak is tough - tough as old boots - he’s had two tough races in a row - losing that race was tough on her. In other words, Tough is strong enough to withstand adverse conditions or able to endure hardship or pain. It could also be a strict and uncompromising approach, as in the police are getting tough with burglaries (Olde-English and heard very rarely in the 21st century), or of course, it can be a lack of sympathy, as in: If you don't like it, then tough! There’s Gorbals tough, as in prone to or notorious for violence: A two-stretch in Barlinnie could be a tough time. Finally, there are just the Toughs as in thugs and ruffians. Merriam-Webster comes closest with difficult to accomplish, resolve, endure, or deal with, which I would suggest makes a tough decision several points North of difficult. A difficult decision seems to be much simpler. The same source suggests it is simply hard to do, make or carry out. The Oxford Languages guide says that the object is needing much effort or skill to accomplish, deal with, or understand or that the object is characterized by or causing hardships or problems.

So, I think we should be concerned with Tough decisions rather than Difficult decisions. I had a quick look to see where and what these might be.

• 9th Aug: Lisa Nandy I recognise various organisations are having to make tough decisions daily.

• 1st Sept: Lisa Powell on avoiding a run on the pound: If we hadn’t taken some of these tough decisions we could have seen a run on the pound, interest rates going up and crashing the economy. It’s something we were left with no alternative but to do.

• Strangely not two sentences earlier she also said: This is one of those very difficult decisions we had to take…

• 6th July Prime Minister: Call me Keir… In relation to the tough decisions, we're going to have to take them and take them early. And we will do that with a raw honesty. But that is not a sort of prelude to saying there's some tax decision that we didn't speak about before that we're going to announce now. It's about the tough decisions to fix the problem and being honest about what they are.

• 8th Sept Prime Minister: When we talk about tough decisions, I’m talking about... the things the last government ran away from.

  • Always good to see the PM having a bit of a laugh: https://twitter.com/i/status/1832701078036504953

• 31st Aug Rachel Reeves: Because by taking the tough decisions now to protect the public finances, we can begin the process of change.

• 7th Sept Martin McClusky MP: I don’t deny that the Scottish Government faces a difficult financial position, and therefore difficult decisions must be made – just as for the incoming Labour government at UK level.

As a snapshot, I will suggest that Starmer leads the way when looking for “difficult decisions.” But if you add all the LibDem and Labour-controlled local councils, Difficult decisions are being made everywhere—but only a few have become Tough.

Phew.

Here are some more difficult decisions at York and Longchamp