Yesterday, in a council Executive meeting considering a report by the Audit Commission on the council’s performance, one of the Labour councillors responding made a reference to engine rooms and Scotty. In other words, I think, much of what the Audit Commission was talking about was relevant only to a few people in the council whose job it is to keep the council moving financially, rather than the more public-facing parts of the council.
I took the Star Trek references to heart, and made a little out of including some in my response. I got in “make it so,” “transporter room,” and “the engines cannae take it, Captain” just in my remarks on the Annual Letter. Later, I made some reference to going boldly, and was faced with split-infinitive pedantry.
It wasn’t just me. Once we’d got going, a Labour councillor responded that clearly Lib Dem voters were “Life, but not as we know it,” and another who confessed to not knowing much about Trek thought that anyone who didn’t agree with him must be “Lost in Space.”
It was a very long meeting.