Should Murdo Fraser succeed in the leadership election for the Scottish Conservatives and then break from what I still think as being Smith Square, his party is going to need a new name. Given that nothing that I have seen mooted seems particularly exciting, I have been looking at templates elsewhere, inspired by seeing a list of Guinean political parties (don't ask).
Always supposing that Fraser wants to make common cause with his ideological brethren elsewhere, a list of members of the International Democrat Union (the Blue International, so to speak) is a good starting point. Most of them go in for 'bah, me too, I'm a sheep' names like the National Party - Honduras and New Zealand or Conservative Party (bit of a non-starter that one) - Canada, Colombia, Norway and Nicaragua. However, things get a bit more interesting with Estonia's Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica and France's Union for a Popular Movement.
Moving beyond full members to associates and observers, how about Russia's Right Cause? I think that could be a first round winner. Other possibilities are Serbia's G17+ (I'm not making this up) or a Macedonian party name which the Scots party could render as Internal Scottish Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Scottish National Unity. Or ISRO-DPSNU.
Given that this new party would hope to be a winner from Lerwick to Leith, perhaps it should borrow a name from a governing party? This allows these possibilities:
Cauri Forces for an Emerging Scotland (borrowed from Benin)
Citizens for European Development of Scotland (Bulgaria)
Patriotic Salvation Movement (Chad)
Union for the Progress of Scotland (Guinea)
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Scotland (Honkers)
Pillars of Truth (Kiribati)
Rally of the Scottish People (Togo)
Scottish European National Union (Zim)
The Scottish Tory Party
ReplyDeleteIt will be the same people, the same policies, the same funding sources and will be run from CCHQ.
Surely the Scots are not that stupid, are they?
Anon - I can't say that I can see it working either. Someone somewhere said they can call themselves what they like, they'll still be called 'bloody Tories' by anyone who doesn't like them.
ReplyDeleteAs re-branding exercises go, it is about as convincing as re-badging Daewoo as Chevrolet.
ReplyDeleteWhenever you see a Chevrolet parked on the side of the road, you still think "that's a Daewoo."
I can't see such "badge engineering" working north of the border, either.
LL - What an excellent parallel.
ReplyDelete