IT'S ALL IN A NAME...

Much has been written about Vote No Borders by better writers than I, but Munguin noticed (strange little animal) that once again the No campaign has managed to pick a name that lends itself to a titter.

OK, some would say that it is a tad childish to laugh at the names, because they are either rather silly or can be made to sound smutty. And I agree.

But you have to wonder at the people who invent these names, that they haven't seen the potential for ridicule in them. What happens at the committee stage when they are deciding on the launch? Does anyone look critically at the name as see if it can be used to ridicule the campaign? Are they naive maiden aunt types from the 1950s, or well ...what?

I recall that at one point they set up "Blether Together" (whatever happened to that?). It's objective was to get teams of people to chat on the phone about why we were better together, although frankly I'd have thought that repeating the word "clout" over and over would become tedious after a while.

But did no one think that, at least in certain parts of Scotland, the word "blether" translates into English as something somewhere between 'silly talk' and downright 'rubbish talk'. It never indicates a serious discussion. You never hear of people having a "blether" about quantum physics!

My grandmother used to say that she had met Mrs McDonald  for a "wee blether" when out "daein the messages". She was saying that she had stopped for an inconsequential chat about nothing very much...."pas grand-chose de n'importe quoi" as the French would say. 

Or, when we were kids giving her some excuse about how we had torn something or got filthy or wet... (without telling her we'd been scrumping for apples or wading through the burn), she used to say "Ach awa ye bletherin' wee skite". In short she knew we were making it up... and we were "belthering".

it's an unfortunate choice of words for a serious political campaign about something that will change your lives.

Then they decided that the UK was OK. 

Now that was unfortunate, even at the most innocent of level, because most of us would probably like to live somewhere that was better than just OK.

But the minute that they printed the name out all we could see was "U KOK".

Unfortunate, no?

Now we have No Borders. This so-called grassroots campaign of ordinary, everyday Scottish people, erm based in London and run by a millionaire Tory backer. Still, I suppose he's an ordinary everyday Tory grassroots English millionaire. The website of the second partner actually boasts to have worked on "country branding" for England!

So again, unfortunate on its own. 

I mean if you are going to pretend to be grassroots, would it not be better (and cheaper) to register your address in Scotland and to employ someone whose name isn't immediately associated with the rich and powerful in London?

But to add insult to injury, the name so easily contacts to NoB... that it is an invitation to treat. Tory nobs (short for "nobles" I imagine), are as popular in Scotland as frostbite!

OK...I can hear Niko telling Munguin that he is being childish, sniggering at this... but aren't there a lot of other people who are using it to poke fun?

And isn't that something that people who start organisations like this should have thought about and taken steps to avoid?
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