Talk of the Town: Dongaria shows us what's in a name

Published on Tuesday 24 August 2010 11:58

HAVING camped outside RBS offices for three days, few would argue that the Climate Camp protesters weren't stubborn, but one protestor is proving to be a little more stubborn than most of her peers.

Not content with supergluing herself to a desk, the protestor has now changed her name by deed poll to Dongaria Kondh and is refusing to change it back until the bank stops funding a mining project in India.

Dongaria Kondh is the name of a tribe in the Indian state of Orissa set to be displaced by RBS-backed Vedanta Resources' plan to mine bauxite in the area.

Jock's what? No, surely that can't be right..

THE names of some parts of Edinburgh have long confused visitors. For example, US tourists often struggle to pronounce Cockburn Street, and even trying to say 'Portobello' can leave some guests floundering.

The latest place name to cause a problem for outsiders is the relatively simple Jock's Lodge.

A London-based marketing firm is promoting a darts event at Rileys club near Meadowbank next month, but they've managed to rename it 'Jock Lodge Street' in their publicity material, perhaps after assuming its real name was some sort of mistake.

Honestly, haven't these people heard of Google Maps?

Darling's talking straight

IN his new book about the world financial crisis, former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson resorts to four-letter words to describe the then Chancellor Alistair Darling's decision to veto plans for Barclays to takeover the failing Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers.

But Mr Darling used his appearance at the Book Festival to put his side of the argument, though more politely.

He said it was the US government's failure to bail out Lehmans back in 2008 which had precipitated the wider crisis.

"A Republican administration had just nationalised the two big housing corporations.

"America is a country where they think the Tories are communists - I think they did not feel they had enough political capital to nationalise Lehmans.

"Over that weekend there was some discussion that Barclays might take over Lehman's. I was rung up by Hank Paulson to ask what our view was.

"I said there was no way a British bank was going to acquire an American bank. If no American bank wanted to buy it, that raised some questions in my mind."

The former chancellor added: "My guess is if I'd allowed that, I wouldn't be sitting here tonight or if I was I would be in the stocks. It would have been just absolutely mad."