A wonderfully
British sentiment, “keep calm and carry on” was a WWII rallying cry to all
Britons. It was originally produced by the government's then Ministry of Information
and formulated onto posters.
It was then
plastered by the famous Bill Stickers all over London in an effort to raise
national morale, stiffen the upper lip and so forth at a time when the war wasn’t
going so well and we were 2-0 down to Hitler at half time.
Personally, when
things are going pear-shaped, “keep calm and carry on” is to my way of thinking
a masterpiece of British understatement, not to mention under-estimation of
effort.
It might apply to
situations where one has just missed the bus or there is a power cut but when
some cheap politician, funded by American and British banking interests has built
himself a war machine and is busy plundering Europe in an effort to pay off his
loans, “keep calm and carry on” does not, to my way of thinking, quite cut it.
I would have thought
something along the lines of “now we are really cheesed off and are going to smash
the loony bastard’s face in” would be more apt. But that’s just me.
Be all that as it
may, 70 years on, the famous national slogan has in recent years become an icon
as it appears on mugs, posters, books and other merchandise all over eBay and other
cultural centres.
It has also become the subject of a long-running copyright
dispute, having been trademarked by an entrepreneur who claims a monopoly on
the famous phrase and is litigating to prevent anyone else from repeating it.
The businessman in question,
having failed to secure the coveted copyrights to that little bit of national heritage
in the UK, turned to that bastion and stalwart of British tradition, the
European Union, which obligingly granted him the rights of ownership he sought.
So, if I understand
it correctly, the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On” is now the property of the
aforementioned business person who, in the finest tradition of extracting from
the human community more wealth than one puts into it, wants other people to
pay for the privilege of using it.
You may have your
own opinion as to the ethics and good taste of copyrighting a common phrase and
well-known slogan and charging other people for using it but there is no denying
that it is pretty darn shrewd.
My sources tell me
that this has alerted lots of people who can’t think of anything useful to do in
order to become rich to the opportunity to make lots of money by copyrighting
common words and phrases. A number of people
have jumped on the copyright bandwagon as it trundles in the general direction
of Eldorado.
Here then are some
more common British phrases that have recently been copyrighted through
application to the Ministry of Daft Ideas in Brussels.
“Labour Isn’t
Working” for example has been copyrighted by the Labour Party and they will henceforth
charge the Tories large sums of money for using it (although some would argue
that the Tories have paid a high enough price for it already).
Not wanting to be left
out, I have myself managed to secure the copyright on the following British favourites
and God help anyone who uses them without first getting my permission and
paying me large sums of money.
“Just ignore them
dear and they will go away.”
“Kilroy woz ere.”
“Don’t get your knickers
in a twist.”
“I’m with Stupid.”
“You don’t have to
be mad to work here but it helps.”
“How much?”
“Sorry.”
“Nice one Cyril.”
“You must think I was born yesterday.”
“I must want me ruddy head examined.”
“I don’t want to make a fuss but . .
.”
“It’s all the fault of those
immigrants.”
“Somebody should do something.”
“You’re having a bleedin’ laugh aincha?”
“We’ve been right royally shafted.”