OBBBA

Everyone needs an acronym. It's Independence Day in the USA and President Trump will get to sign his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) today. He certainly has an eye for the spectacular and the historic. It's certainly Big, weighing in at over 1,000 pages. Beautiful? That's in the eye of the beholder. As for Bill and Act: well it can't be both. A Bill is a proposal and, when it's signed into law, it becomes an Act. It can't be both at the same time. But no-one ever accused Trump of accuracy or precision.

But is OBBBA really an acronym? I always thought acronyms have to be pronounceable as a word and that, for most of us, doesn't fit the Bill (sic). However, if it is frequently used in the written word it's possible colloquially. After all, Americans do odd things with our Big, Beautiful English Language.

One of the most effective political acronyms recently used is MAGA. It's basically the shorthand for Trump's whole election campaign; he didn't need anything else - just shout MAGA, MAGA, MAGA and wear the baseball cap and you win an election. And then continue to use it when you govern, because it defines everything you do.

We Brits are a more restrained lot but I do think our political parties could do with a bit of acronymic oomph. I asked ChatGPT for suggestions and the results were pretty variable in quality. Its most amusing was PRIDE – Protect, Reform, Invest, Defend, Empower for the Conservatives. Can you imagine Rees-Mogg going for that word? Best suggestion was REAL – Reclaim, Empower, Act, Liberate - for Reform. I can actually see Farage et al getting the faithful to shout REAL, REAL, REAL at an election rally. And it fits neatly onto a baseball cap. I asked ChatGPT to draw that for me but after a good few minutes it was clear that I'd broken it. Frozen.

Any suggestions from readers for GOAT acronyms?