The Grand Order of British Indifference
For those who's contribution is important but somehow still unrecognized
The 2019 SDP conference was a small affair held in the upstairs room of a Peterborough hotel. William Clouston had taken on the leadership only a few months earlier, so this was less a gathering of the clans than a freshers fair. Still, William’s speech laid out his charge that our political and administrative life was characterised by indifference. Our politicians weren’t necessarily bad or stupid, they were simply indifferent to the results of their action/inaction.
Three years down the line, the point is proved daily. Rarely can a nation have received, in so short a time, such a lesson about the indifference of those who have governed us.
Indifference: that combination of complacency, lack of curiosity, Micawberish-faith that ‘something will turn up’ and, ultimately, broad-spectrum exhaustion.
It is time those embodying the values and habits of indifference were properly recognized for their contribution. They are likely at or near the top of the tree, and have probably been there for some time, quietly propagating indifference to all in their ambit.
I therefore propose that The Long March establish a new honour: The Grand Order of British Indifference (GOBI). The award is intended to generate public awareness for those who’s careers are significant but generally have never achieved the public recognition they deserve. The rules are simple but, I think, fair.
Politicians of all parties are not eligible for the GOBI, on the happy grounds that all political careers end in failure anyway, and usually in public disdain too.
Nominations are accepted only for those who’s lifetime work has already attracted public honours. So that will probably include senior civil servants, heads of charities, NGOs and business.
Thus, for example, early nominees for a GOBI would include OFWAT’s former insider water-industry regulator Jonson Cox CBE; economics-indifferent Treasury permanent secretary Sir Tom Scholar, and our latest prospect, the Elliot Ness of waste dumping (but not sewage) the Environment Agency’s Sir James Bevan. All these people have had the necessary clear impact on Britain, yet have not yet received the public recognition they deserve.
With luck, receipt of a GOBI will, for example, allow people to think, when they think of Jonson Cox CBE: ‘Oh yes, didn’t he get a GOBI for his work at the water regulator?’
For this Order to gain popular recognition, it needs several things:
Nominations;
A Scrutiny Committee;
A Powerful Design .
This is where you all come in.
Graphic Designers: The GOBI needs a good medal design. This is a tough one, and way beyond my competence: the world is littered with medal designs, and so few really stand out. Can a medal truly display the qualities which make indifference such a powerful force? Over to you.
Wordsmiths & Classicists: The award needs a motto - Latin obviously. Some early suggestions, fashioned probably incompetently using Google Translate: ‘Ingenue i non damnare’ ; ‘Mea opera plebes ac desperatio’ ; ‘Cras faciam illud, fortasse’; ‘Dum herba mea est’. Please feel free to propose your own.