The Party Name

[Duke]

I think it's time to have a good think about the Party's name.

Not in the sense of changing it; this name was chosen ages ago, we've had repeated discussions/arguments about it, but I think it has stuck (and for good reasons).

Instead, about how we can make the name "work" for us. While the "pirate" theme has been around for over 150 years, and may go down well with what we think of as our "core" supporters, it may have something of a negative effect on the rest of the population. For better or for worse, we are "Pirates" and I think we need to make the most of it.

One option is to go with the "skull and crossbones" theme. This might get us some attention, but could be hard in terms of getting us taking seriously. I'm not sure this would be a good thing to go with.

On the other hand, there's quite a bit of "anti-traditional politics" sentiment out there at the moment, and while, traditionally, that sort of stuff goes towards the Lib Dems, as the local elections show, there may be a window of a couple of years where this isn't the case, and people are looking for an nth option (for n > 3) and something different in politics. At the moment, our glorious manifesto says we are a "new type of political party" and I think we should be capitalising on this as much as possible.

With that end in mind, I wonder if we can bend the "pirate" theme to this. As many of you may know, I have the imagination of a notoriously unimaginative thing, but I was thinking along the lines of slogans such as "The Pirate Party; Boarding Parliament" or "Storming into Politics" ... but better.

Anyways, just a thought.

[lhsi]

I really like the first slogan, made me smile.

Instead of the skull n crossbones, we could think about a variation on it. I remember seeing a tape with a cross underneath it once, i think it was to do with home taping, so we could think of a variation of the original flag like that. As we're a political party, an 'X' like you see on vote slips can replace the crossbones[1], just need to think of something to replace a skull, maybe a robot head or something, but im sure someone else can think of something better.

I didnt think traditional pirates were hugely unpopular in recent media, it seems to have been almost romanticised by films and whatnot. They were even on the Last Episode of Doctor Who.

[1] Would this be allowed? I think there may be some rules about mimicing voting slips, but I dont know what they are so this would need to be checked first

[tuoni]

We're actually missing out on another demographic: Pirate radio stations - they used to be huge, we're just the next generation doing the same thing in a different way. Maybe we could try tying something into that.

[rancidpunk]

Skull 'n Bones!

[tuoni]

Skull 'n Bones!

I don't think the party should take anyone with a YouTube channel which includes a mash-Up celebration of Pirates called I Can't Get No GIRLS seriously!

[scuzzmonkey]

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/wiki/imag ... oat_20.png

I've always liked the "Change Course" slogan on this poster crumbles did.

[Duke]

Would this be allowed? I think there may be some rules about mimicking voting slips, but I don't know what they are so this would need to be checked first

I think this is only during an election campaign - but most people ignore it anyway.

We're actually missing out on another demographic: Pirate radio stations - they used to be huge, we're just the next generation doing the same thing in a different way. Maybe we could try tying something into that.

Any thoughts on how to do this - once you've done your magic web-team-work, can you try to do this?

I've always liked the "Change Course" slogan on this poster crumbles did.

That's precisely the sought of thing I was thinking of; but crumbles is far better at this sort of thing than I am.

[lhsi]

For a possible logo that mimics the skull and crossbones (but isn't a skull and crossbones), you could have a blank CD as the skull and two crossed Ethernet cables as the bones.

For us to do a pirate radio station, do you mean one using actual radio frequencies, or a pirate internet-radio station?

[scuzzmonkey]

again though, I think if we do this we might be focusing too much on one specific area - hence why I prefer "change course" as an idea.

[tuoni]

For us to do a pirate radio station, do you mean one using actual radio frequencies, or a pirate internet-radio station?

No, I meant try and appeal to the people who used to listen to them back in the 70's/80's

[aramoro]

If the idea is to get yourself taken seriously then you should probably avoid a CD crossed by Ethernet cables because it 1) makes no sense 2) it makes you the computer guys party who are bothered about that computer thingy with computers, yes my son is good with computers computers computers computers .....

Computers are only directly related to 1 part of 1 of your three main manifesto topics.

[scuzzmonkey]

^completely agree.

[lhsi]

If the idea is to get yourself taken seriously then you should probably avoid a CD crossed by Ethernet cables because it 1) makes no sense 2) it makes you the computer guys party who are bothered about that computer thingy with computers, yes my son is good with computers computers computers computers .....

Computers are only directly related to 1 part of 1 of your three main manifesto topics.

Fair enough, that's a good point. Do you have any other suggestions?

About a year ago I remember seeing some PPUK posters that were for a specific topic (I think I saw one about copyright and the happy birthday song, and one for CCTV), would it be more beneficial to do this (large range of posters covering different specific areas), or less specific/more general posters (like the change course one)?

[rancidpunk]

I've got an idea, how about a human skull with maybe a couple of femurs crossed behind it?

Or even swords in this all inclusive design, change the name of course,

British-Pirate-Party-Banner-300x234.jpg (28.11 KiB) Viewed 1026 times

[AndrewTindall]

I like how although that flag includes the dragon of wales, it relegates it to the status of the Cornish.

[scuzzmonkey]

I like how although that flag includes the dragon of wales, it relegates it to the status of the Cornish.

your point being?

*equips shield*

[AndrewTindall]

I like how although that flag includes the dragon of wales, it relegates it to the status of the Cornish.

your point being?

*equips shield*

That it's highly amusing to see the dragon on the flag, as welsh nationalists often complain about, only for it to then be inferred to be as important as the "nation" of cornwall, which has far less legitimacy. So it's overplaying cornwall, whilst playing up wales but in a way that would really annoy nationalists.

[Cymrobalch]

Surely the Union Flag has far too much association with the BNP now. Personally, I feel national flags are pretty ugly anyhow, especially when you attempt to mix them all together. If you do want to go down the road of tipping your hat to each nation, including Kernow (Cornwall), you'd also have to remember Ellan Vannin (Isle of Mann) in the least.

[rancidpunk]

As far as the dragon is concerned don't you guys realise that it's not about the size, it's about the way you use it!

P.S. this was the flag of an old attempt to start a pirate party, I'm guessing the dragon wasn't "relegated" for anything other than aesthetic reasons but I agree that such an unintended slight might have almost been reason to go to war if we still lived in 14th century Britain, luckily we don't in case you hadn't noticed ffs. Oh, and if the Union flag means BNP then half the country was decked out for a BNP rally recently, or maybe it was something else?

[scuzzmonkey]

Rancid: I think the only problem is, is that the fascists have completely hi-jacked any sense of nationalism and pride that most people (and myself included, annoyingly) do find it rather off putting. Yea, it's bullshit, but if we ran under the Union Flag, I would be certain the majority of people would mistake us for ultra-nationalists and racists - which is a pile of crap, obviously.