Language is important. In communications we understand this. And as a former communications professional so does David Cameron. The Prime Minister fears honouring Islamic State with the title they have chosen for themselves aligns the group too closely with all Muslims, risking sending the easily influenced into their arms and ignorant non-Muslims to get confused. He is right of course. But his attempts to rename the group by the Arabic derogatory name Daesh is too little too late. His suggestion was batted away by the BBC on Monday. Once rooted language is as hard to move as a London Plane tree, as lobbyists for the shale gas industry* have learnt to their consternation.
*That’s fracking, with all its negative proximity to a certain swear word, to everyone else.
Making a trifle out of a drachma
It is a peculiarity of newspapers that they are written as if the readers read stories with the sole purpose of glistening information which is personally useful to them. So we had the strange image this week of pictures of utter chaos in Greece under newspaper headlines advising holiday makers to ‘take cash’ on holiday because the ATMs may not work.
We will have to wait until Sunday to see if the country will accept austerity measures. But for all the talk about Greek inefficiency they’ve effectively pulled off an in/out EU referendum in the time it takes Nigel Farage to order a round at the Westminster Arms.
Selfie control
Rochdale Labour MP Simon Danczuk has split from his wife Karen after eight years together and three years of marriage. One of the reasons for their split according to Karen herself was the popularity of the photographs she took of herself in low cut tops which she regularly posted on Twitter. The mother-of-two has given up her job as a Labour councillor to pursue her ‘new career’ as a ‘selfie queen’ and it seems the strain on the marriage has been too much. Mr Danczuk ‘couldn’t take’ that Karen had become ‘the star’ according to his estranged wife. With plenty of other women uploading pictures of their cleavage (and more) on the internet it appears that the thing that made Karen stand out was that she was an MP’s wife. It will be interesting to see how far Karen’s career gets without this unique selling point.
Don’t fudge it Budget
It feels like the calm before the storm in politics as we wait for the first Conservative only Budget in 20 years. Almost everyone is calling for the Chancellor to ‘be radical’ while Labour are down and party support is high. He is facing pressure for the top rate of tax to be slashed from 45p back to the 40p it was before it was introduced just before the 2010 election. There are those in the Treasury that want to see the living allowance made compulsory but this may be something for later in the Parliament.