The Dangers Of Online Democracy

Democracy is too precious to be wasted on the masses. Somebody else said that, and on first glance that seems very sensible. Looking around the world, at the people who voted for Brexit as they thought it would stop 'this country being  swamped by immigrants' and that was their only reason. And those who vote for  Scottish nationalism because they don't like the English, and that is their only reason.

And those who voted for the orange one  in the belief that he would make America great again. When was it great before? And by what criteria? And a few countries already have the prefix Great and as I live in one of them, let me assure you, it's not Great. It's not bad, it's better than most but not 'great'.

 Overall it’s Ok with some dodgy bits and I am sure the USA is exactly the same.

But ‘Let’s make America Ok’ was never going to be an election winner was it?

There has been a very interesting and amusing story over here for the last few months, that  shows the upside and the down side of true democracy  and the dangers of the internet. 

Would you leave it to the Great ( or  mediocre ) British public – the  online public at least – to name your child? 

Imagine the Queen did that and some wag nominates 'Crowny Potato Bottom ' for a name, and everybody has  a laugh on the basis that nobody  would ever vote for a numpty name like that- then everybody does  for a laugh, just to get away  from the Victorias , Elizabeths and Charlottes. And before we know it, we have  King Crowny Potato Bottom.

I wonder if King Edward had a potato bottom.

And of course, in the national census so many wags filled in Jedi under the section Religious faith ( others, please specify), that it is now an official religion of  GB.  I do believe 2% of Police Scotland are technically Jedi. May the force be with them!

                                    

                                          RSS Sir David Attenborough

So it was when the National Environmental Research Council wanted a new name for the 200 million pound research vessel, they were maybe not best advised to let the online public choose.  A website was set up for them to suggest names, and vote.

Then a school communications officer thought he’d stick in a daft name for a laugh. He then came up with “Boaty McBoatface” and thought it rather fetching.

It caught on.

It became front page news.  The RSS was then put in a quandary. Legally they had the final say, but could they be seen to reject a name that the Great (?) British public had overwhelmingly voted for? Mr James Hand the man who came up with the name originally said he was ‘terribly sorry’ so he sounds jolly British as well. The name won by over 15,000 votes .

Other serious contenders were the RSS Henry Worsley, the RSS Sir David Attenborough and the RSS Pillar of Autumn. As the boat will be working in the Artic and the Antarctic from 2019 there was a suggestion she should be called the RSS Pingu or the RSS Boat Marley and the Whalers. Somebody did suggest the RSS Titanic but that name had already been taken.

Was it an apposite name for such a noble vessel?

 The renaged of course and  the boat was called ;The sir david attenborough' which is jolly spiffing and rather ( Great) British )  They did however name the submarine scout vessel Boaty McBoatface and he had his inaugural sink this week, to huge media coverage and much applause. The public adore him, he must be one of the most famous submersibles the world has ever seen. Although his name originally was  thought unfit for purpose.

And he makes people smile.

And he is also a kind of orangey yellow. And now underwater. And now popular.

So if any country out there has something orange and unpopular that could be considered unfit for purpose, just put it underwater for a week  and see how the world looks then.

                                 

                                        Starring Boaty McBoatface!

Just a thought,

Caro ( In London!)