Well worth a read: Terrific article about the current nasty legal battle over the Keep Calm and Carry On poster (stylistic inspiration for the design of this here blog) and its origins in the Ministry of Information at the start of WWII.
The language of the original poster is an odd thing, it’s state propaganda with a particularly English tone — like 1984 written by PG Wodehouse — as if the bad thing they were urging us to get over was a broken teapot and not bombs raining down on our heads.
Download: Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye – Vera Lynn (mp3)
cryingallthewaytothechipshop.wordpress.com 
I can’t believe that I’m still seeing the ‘Keep Calm and …’ merchandise still going on now. Every time I’m in the West End I’ll spot a new T-Shirt / Bag etc with a variation of the motif on it. It was a great slice of English nostalgia that was reappropriated for the beginning of the credit crunch in 2007, but now it is a depressing symbol of fatalism and compliance – we’re all doomed and there’s no point getting annoyed about it. I hope I never see it again – it’s like Frankie Says..T-Shirts in 1984, fun for a while but the jokes over. Would anyone have been seen dead in a Frankie Says T-shirt 4 years later? Seeing versions of it on sale in John Lewis says it all.
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