Saturday 30 April 2011

Beauty surrounds

On the 21st June 2009 I wrote about the armorial bearings (the coat of arms) for Morecambe. This coat of arms was created in 1928 for the town of Morecambe and was used by the football club until about a year ago when Morecambe FC felt obliged to change it because they didn't have copyright. I have read reports that they felt permission lay with the town council. I wonder if they asked for permission.

Now it is election time and the Morecambe Bay Independent Party also uses the same logo.
Well to be more exact, they changed the original motto which was “beauty surrounds, health abounds” (which is just about as far as you can get away from party politics) to "people before politics" without a hint of irony. You see, this particular party gain votes by pretending that they are not a party. They have a tagline "sick of party politics" which they also use without a hint of irony.

This party knows that they need permission to use Morecambe's coat of arms, but I have never seen anything that says they have been granted this permission. If permission lies with the council then it would smack of corruption if they used it. If it doesn't (and it didn't in 2009) then they should celebrate being given permission to use it. However my guess is that they just decided to use it and not ask permission. A logo which belongs to the whole town should not be appropriated by one particular party.

Change the world

4 comments:

  1. I suppose the same goes for the BNP appropriating the flag of St George. My sister was born on St George's day, and I am proud of being English/ British, but shy away from displaying the St George flag because of it's negative associations

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  2. Thanks for that Sea. I understand what you are saying but it is important not to avoid prejudice. The biggest street party with all its bunting and flag waving was in Marple Bridge - the heart of Liberal Democrat Hazel Grove Constituency.

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  3. I mean avoid prejudice - you can't amend comments!

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  4. And when I lived over in that next of the woods..they would have voted for a blue pig

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