Referendum

We have now received our leaflet from the government, advising us to vote to remain in the EU in the forthcoming referendum.

Now I am unimpressed by the workings of the EU bureaucracy - a bureaucracy which seems to have inherited plenty of vices from those its members - and not least the travelling circus called the European Parliament. A bureaucracy which is going to take a long time to stop being a messy compromise between all kinds of conflicting customs and interests. But all this, while irksome, is not really important - and I am convinced by the government's case. I shall vote to remain.

Which does not stop me wondering about the propriety of the government sending this leaflet to every household in the land. Is it fair for the government to claim staying in as a government policy when the cabinet is so divided that Cameron has been forced to suspend collective responsibility? Should they offer comparable facilities to the other lot?

No doubt our Cabinet Secretary has been spending quality time reading up the precedents and stands ready to be grilled by all comers. From where I associate to the fair ground wrestlers - like Charles of 'As You Like It', who do just that.

And then, where did they get their address list from? What about the millions of buildings with more than one occupier? Did they sub the job out to BT or some other some outfit with good coverage on the ground? To Amazon with its superb fulfillment capability?

But I have been wondering more about the design of the leaflet, which struck me as poor, certainly by the generally good standards of government. The front and back covers are very bad, the choice of typeface is poor and layout generally is poor. Overall, a bad job. But why? The government could presumably afford to hire decent design people on a job of this size and the leaflet is not so big and complicated that one could not have done a much better job in a day or so. I think I could have done a much better job in a day or so using Word, despite this product being not particularly well adapted for this particular sort of work.

Or is it all more cunning than that. Maybe the marketing boys & girls have ruled that ugly sticks in the mind better than pretty and sticking in the mind is clearly good. Rather in the way that some advertisers - I am thinking here of Benetton - think that their interests are served by street hoardings which shock. Which they are not in so far as I can help it, as I would never knowingly buy one of their products in consequence. But that is only me.

Not very convincing, so the puzzle remains. Why is the leaflet so ugly?

Reference 1: https://www.eureferendum.gov.uk/.

Reference 2: or for your very own copy see https://www.eureferendum.gov.uk/why-the-government-believes-we-should-remain/eu-referendum-leaflet/. Front page reproduced above, although I think that the aspect ratio may have slipped a bit. Our actual leaflet looks a lot wider than its picture.