One of the most striking things about the debate in the Commons this afternoon on Britain and International Security was that rather than debate the complexities of intervening in Syria, a lot of MPs were very keen to talk about the name of the terror group the government might take action against. MP after MP from all sides of the House rose to complain about the BBC’s decision not to call the group ‘Daesh’, and started to hatch a powerful plan to gang up on the broadcaster and use ‘Daesh’ anyway, until the corporation relents.
Alex Salmond even went so far as to say that ‘we could actually achieve something together’ – not in combating the terror group per se, but at least in getting the BBC to rebrand it. Same difference.
Poor Michael Fallon and his opposite number Vernon Coaker struggled to keep up with the demands of those around them, with Fallon resorting at one point to calling the group ‘Isil-Daesh’, followed by Coaker calling them ‘Islamic… [pause]’, ‘Daesh’, ‘Isil’ and ‘er, er’ all in one breath.
Now, as I said in an earlier post, while language is powerful, this sort of thing is what people who are supposed to be powerful end up talking about when they feel powerless, when an issue feels just too big to take hold of at once.
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