Pork Pie Plot and Other Matters

The news can be dull, repetitive, and tedious despite the best efforts of journalists.

But creating or just reporting the witticisms that come naturally from some people, really does make it all a lot more fun.

I just loved the ‘Pork Pie Plot’ so-called because one of the alleged political plotters comes from Melton Mowbray. This is how CNN is reporting it to the world:

The British press is rife with speculation that the MP for Rutland & Melton, Alicia Kearns, hosted a meeting of discontented Conservative backbenchers this week. That constituency is home to the famous Melton Mowbray pork pie.

Rutland & Melton MP Alicia Kearns

I don’t know who first came up with the name, but it spread like wildfire. And that is the thing to take note of. A good name, a light-hearted name, encourages everyone to use it – including journalists who are looking to inject fun into the news.

There were a couple of other great metaphors in UK politics in the last few days. The idea that the Conservative leadership would give the Tory right some ’red meat’ to keep them happy, also got a lot of traction. In this case, ‘red meat’ referred to policies like ending the BBC licence fee and calling in the military to end illegal channel crossings by migrants. Here is a nice explanation from the I newspaper.

A few days earlier Keir Starmer used the phrase ‘industrial-scale partying’.

And in the metaphor-news this week, we hear that Professor Jonathan Van-Tam (dubbed JVT) – knighted for his work in the pandemic – is stepping down from his role as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and going back to academia. JVT is on the record as saying he loves a metaphor. There is a good piece from the Evening Standard which pulls together some of his best.

But it is naming that always fascinates me.  Again, I have blogged about this before, in 2015 in fact, when I observed that a dentist from Minnesota who mistakenly shot a protected lion whilst on safari, was very unlucky to the extent that the lion was named Cecil.  Had the lion had been called Dhahabu (Swahili for gold) or just had a number, there would have been a lot less publicity. The name Cecil was enough to ensure the dead lion was reported around the world.

‘Pork Pie Plot’ is inspired and will probably make it into pub quizzes and books of political ephemera. It will also be associated with Alicia Kearns all her political career.

And yet businesses I work with are always so reluctant to give new products and services interesting names. Or even interesting nicknames. If you call your new portal ‘Babs’ or ‘Shirley’ or name a high-tech vehicle ‘the Batmobile’ people will talk about it more. Journalists will write about it more. The actual logic behind the name can be very tenuous (as in the Pork Pie Plot) but if the name is fun …it will work.

And surely, after the last two years, fun is something we all need.

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Lindsay Williams

Lindsay Williams is the founder and MD of The Media Coach. She has been an expert media trainer, communication coach and consultant since 1998. Lindsay hosts a range of bespoke communication skills courses which include Media Training, Presentation Training, Crisis Media Training and Message Building. Her particular forte is CEO Communication Coaching. Lindsay is the person to hire when you want C-Suite Communication Training.

Lindsay Williams is based in London but runs training sessions in multiple time zones, including the US, Europe, Africa and Asia, working online or travelling to host small and large scale training events. With 20 years of experience as a communications consultant with corporations and international organisations, Lindsay also runs Personal Impact Training and Pitching Via Zoom courses.

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