Thursday, July 30, 2009

Alan Johnson, ntm and tm

Over the years this 'blog, along with various others, has fretted over the confusion caused by the high profile of Alan Johnson, the Cabinet Minister and Trade Unionist, and Alan Johnson, the Professor at Edge Hill University. It's not been merely theoretical - numerous people, including the Guardian's picture department, have been confused. To aid we have tended to refer to Alan Johnson of Edge Hill as Alan 'not the minister' Johnson, or simply ntm.

Today we have evidence that Alan Johnson has suffered as much as the rest of us. The Independent reports that he has obtained one of the government's new ID cards, far in advance of anyone else. With its photograph and holographic technology, there is now no reason why people will not be able to identify which Alan Johnson is which. The bill of £5bn for the taxpayer is surely reasonable given the severity of the problem and I commend Alan Johnson for taking this step.

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posted by Matthew @ 7/30/2009 01:23:00 PM Comments: 0

Saturday, May 19, 2007

It's going to happen...

The bookies seem to think that Alan Johnson, the Minister and Trade Unionist, is set to become Labour's Deputy Leader. We've discussed whether this will have implications for Alan "Not the Minister and Trade Unionist" Johnson, and the general consensus was that in this limited sense, it would only require a small change of emphasis - i.e., Alan "Not the Minister, Trade Unionist, and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party" Johnson. The real issue will come if Alan "Not the Minister, Trade Unionist and favourite to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party" Johnson [1] ever enters serious politics [2].

[1] Actually this might be ambigous - does the Not obviously refer to the 'favourite to be become' bit.
[2] There's also Alan Johnson, Mark's boss in Peep Show. I have no idea what we'll do if he enters politics.

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posted by Matthew @ 5/19/2007 12:17:00 PM Comments: 12