Lord MacApple rides again.
In this rather quaint land athwart the Greenwich meridian it is still customary for ordinary mortals to be selected for greater things and to be asked to change their identify for ever. The term is ennoblement and it involves altering your name from Fred Bloggs to Lord Bloggs of Bloggton-on-Stour or suchlike. Then it’s the donning of an ermine robe and a grand entry to the House of Lords, our version of the US Senate where Fred and his friends can take a partisan approach to telling the rest of us what to do. They are now called Lawmakers and their original names are soon forgotten.
Having had several old friends dragged from the common herd and promoted to glory in this way, I keep a weather eye on doings at Westminster. I, of course, have neither the talent nor the political influence to justify any such honours. Yesterday, though, the subject of my ennoblement, however unlikely, cropped up. What title would I have assumed? How would I have influenced the march of technology?
It was my friend Tony Cole of ebookanoid.com who came up with the perfect handle for a tech lord: Lord MacApple of Cupertino-on-Thames. I like it; it grows on me by the hour. I am tempted to make a substantial donation to one or other political party in a last-ditch assault. The name has gravitas, redolent of infinite technological wisdom, if a little Apple-centric. The lawmakers need someone like me.