Always be Frank ... unless of course you’re an MP
AS mentioned above: Zac Goldsmith. It’s a good name, don’t you think? Edgy, energised, the hint of a lantern jaw and laughter in the face of fear.
He may be an MP but you wouldn’t be wholly surprised to discover ‘Zac Goldsmith’ was an Indiana Jones-style adventurer-archaeologist in his spare time, avoiding poison-tipped arrows and deadly snakes and fending off sultry, sloe-eyed, sub-continental princesses in pursuit of some old gemstone.
Actually, though, Zac’s real name is Frank. Frank Goldsmith. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it does rather put the kybosh on the sultry princesses. Goldsmith isn’t the only prominent political figure to have changed his first name for, one presumes, effect.
The journalist John Rentoul has compiled an interesting list. Vince Cable’s given name is John (what’s going on there? ‘I’ve always felt like a Vince,’ said no one, ever). Enoch Powell was also a John, but perhaps wanted something with a more terrifying Old Testamenty feel. Boris Johnson is really Alexander, while Paddy Ashdown is Jeremy and George Osborne is Gideon. Harold Macmillan was a Maurice, and Jim Callaghan a Leonard. Gordon Brown is James, which possibly seemed inappropriately funky.
They say, accurately enough, that politics is showbusiness for ugly people, so are these the equivalent of stage names? Or is it an early sign of the control freakery that later leads them to try to run our lives too? It’s a waste of time, anyway: when you’re a politician, voters will very quickly come up with some names of their own.