Some baffling council slogans
Or – why is it in *Dutch*?
Some actual writing below. But this is a weirdly – some might say unnervingly – quiet time of year in the old newsletter game, so first, I’m rattling a tin.
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Some baffling council slogans
When I was rather younger than I am now, I wrote an undergrad thesis on the plays of Joe Orton. A fact that has always stayed with me from his biography, John Lahr’s Prick Up Your Ears, is the Latin motto of his home city of Leicester, “Semper eadem”: “Always the same”.
Those words were taken from Elizabeth I, who had granted the city’s charter, and on whose crest they were meant to imply stability and integrity from a queen who
was a member of a dynasty whose claim to the throne had been pretty questionable, and
didn’t actually have any heirs. In Lahr’s telling, though, they became an expression of quite how stultifying a provincial city like Leicester was to an outrageous and proudly queer figure like Orton; and this has been unfairly colouring my views of Leicester, the largest British city I have yet to visit, ever since.1
But Leicester is far from the only place with a motto that makes you wonder whether anyone has really thought this through. Here are some others.
Hertfordshire: “Trust and fear not”. A bit like having a council motto about how unlikely it is you will get eaten by a bear on their patch.
Wigan: “Ancient and Loyal”. Brings to mind the KLF’s baffling 1991 hit, Justified & Ancient, feat. US country music singer Tammy Wynette (“...and they drive an ice cream van”).
Wokingham: “Unum e Pluribus” (”one from many”). Big talk from a Berkshire commuter town to steal a motto from the literal United States.
High Wycombe: “Industria ditat” (“Industry enriches”). Feels an oddly apt summary of local political attitudes from another Tory commuter town which has not seen any industry in an extremely long time.
The same can be said of Huntingdon: “Labore omnia florent” (“By labour everything prospers”). South Cambridgeshire’s “not without work” does something similar, but bafflingly does it in Dutch (“Niet zonder arbyt”).
Cheshire: “Jure et dignitate gladii” (“By the right and dignity of the Sword”). Pretty metal for the county that gave us Wilmslow.
Plymouth: “Turris Fortissima est Nomen Jehova” (”The strongest tower is the name of Jehovah”). When the wolves are running, the eagle will have landed. Go! Go! Go!
Peterborough: “Upon this rock”. Because Peterborough is just like Saint Peter, holder of the keys to heaven and the official first pope.
Croydon: “Ad Summa Nitamur” (”Let us strive after perfection”). You’re thinking mean things about Croydon now, aren’t you? Stop it, it’s rude.
Bolton: “Supera mores” (“Overcome difficulties or delays”). A slogan that clearly predates current government rail policies.
Chorley: “Be Aware”. Though apparently until 1988, it was simply “Beware”, which raises some questions about exactly what the hell is going on in Chorley. As Marnanel Thurman put it on Twitter: “WELCOME TO CHORLEY: ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.”
Canvey Island: “Ex Mare Dei Gratia” (”From the sea by the grace of God”). I like this one, but it does seem to be asking for trouble in an area where much of the land is below sea level, at a time when sea levels are rising.2
Brentwood: “Ardens Fide” (“Burning faith”). I am significantly less wild about this one, because one of the major events in Brentwood’s history was the 1555 decision to burn 19 year old William Hunter at the stake for refusing to attend Catholic mass. Given all that, are we that comfortable with putting the word “faith” in such close proximity to the word “burning”? Really?
Kensington & Chelsea: “Quam Bonum In Unum Habitare” (“What a good thing it is to dwell together in unity”). Because what defines London’s worst borough, which presided over the Grenfell Tower disaster and ripped its only cycle lane up almost as soon as it had installed it in deference to the views of residents who think they need a landrover to get around despite living in central London, if not its steadfast commitment to social solidarity.
I think I’m going to stop there before I get any angrier. But if you want more – a lot more – content about UK local councils, CityMetric survivor Robin Wilde has ranked the logos of all 399 (!!) of them, in an essay running to 18,000 words (!?!). “This is what happens when there’s no CityMetric to throw my silly ideas at, Jonn,” he says. Oh, god.
Credit where it’s due: thanks to Owain Sutton and the aforementioned Marnanel Thurman for the conversation on Twitter which inspired this one.
Related story: I had for years imagined Norwich to be a horribly depressing place based on having had one bad date in a retail park vaguely in the vicinity of the place twenty years ago. When I finally visited, though, not long before writing this piece, I found it to be utterly gorgeous. I hate my brain sometimes, I really do.
No, Canvey Island isn’t a council (it’s part of Castle Point), but it was, until 1974, when this slogan was transferred to the coat of arms of the parish that succeeded it.