Now I have heard everything! Our elected MP's have voted to change the name of Big Ben to, wait for it..... Queen Elizabeth Tower!!!!!
I am speechless. It is challenging to find a name that trips off the tongue and everybody knows and everybody loves. I know for I have been struggling with my names for years. Janette Miller was difficult enough but Janette Heffernan was impossible! I even tried Jan Mila for my company with no success either.
Surely renaming a major national icon to honour a very ordinary but pleasant woman who had the good fortune to win the major prize in the lottery of life is a major mistake.
Big Ben was a visual and audio focal point throughout the miseries and danger of the Second World War. Its chimes became a rallying point for allies in occupied countries and its reassuring sounds said it all. It was comforting and stood for everything the Nazis didn't. You knew where you stood with Big Ben and whose side you were on.
To rename it in honor of a hereditary monarch who has achieved greatness by reigning over us longest seems like outright toadying. Charles I must be laughing his head off.
If the Queen and the royal family knew what was good for them they would refuse the honour. They got away with the expensive shindig of the Jubilee celebrations, shot themselves in the foot with making Kate curtsey to the Royal Princesses of the blood but renaming Big Ben is a step too far.
Well you can rename the Tower, I suppose, but not the clock! That will always be Big Ben!
It's not the clock but the large brass bell that is known as 'Big Ben'
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