Emmanuel Macron: a populist eruption from the liberal centre – New Statesman

Oh, piss off Doris, cried the nation in unison this morning. No, it wasn't that everyone's local cantankerous old lady had thwacked our ankles with her stick. This is a different, more aggressive Doris. Less Werthers, more extreme weathers. Less bridge club, more bridge collapse.

This is Storm Doris.

A storm that has brought snow, rain, and furious winds up to 94mph to parts of the UK. There are severe weather warnings of wind, snow and ice across the entire country.

But the real question here is: why is it called that? And what impact does the new Met Office policy of naming storms have on us?

Storm Doris is the latest protagonist in the Met Offices decision to name storms, a pilot scheme introduced in winter 2015/16 now in its second year.

The scheme was introduced to draw attention to severe weather conditions in Britain, and raise awareness of how to prepare for them.

The Name our Storms initiative invites the public to suggest names for storms. You can do this by tweeting the @metoffice using the #nameourstorms hashtag and your suggestion, through its Facebook page, or by emailing them.

These names are collated along with suggestions from Met ireann and compiled into a list. These are whittled down into 21 names, according to which were most suggested in alphabetical order and alternating between male and female names. This is done according to the US National Hurricane Naming convention, which excludes the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z because there are thought to be too few common names beginning with these letters.

They have to be human names, which is why suggestions in this list revealed by Wired including Apocalypse, Gnasher, Megatron, In A Teacup (or Ena Tee Cup) were rejected. The Met Office received 10,000 submissions for the 2016/17 season. According to a spokesperson, a lot of people submit their own names.

Only storms that could have a medium or high wind impact in the UK and Ireland are named. If there are more than 21 storms in a year, then the naming system starts from Alpha and goes through the Greek alphabet.

The names for this year are: Angus (19-20 Nov 16), Barbara (23-24 Dec 2016), Conor (25-26 Dec 2016), Doris (now), Ewan, Fleur, Gabriel, Holly, Ivor, Jacqui, Kamil, Louise, Malcolm, Natalie, Oisn, Penelope, Robert, Susan, Thomas, Valerie and Wilbert.

Doris is an incongruous name for this storm, so why was it chosen? A Met Office spokesperson says they were just at that stage in their list of names, and theres no link between the nature of the storm and its name.

But do people send cosy names for violent weather conditions on purpose? Theres all sorts in there, a spokesperson tells me. People dont try and use cosy names as such.

We know that giving names to objects and animals immediately gives us a human connection with them. Thats why we name things we feel close to: a pet owner names their cat, a sailor names their boat, a bore names their car. We even name our virtual assistants from Microsofts Clippy to Amazons Alexa.

This gives us a connection beyond practicality with the thing weve named.

Remember the response of Walter Palmer, the guy who killed Cecil the Lion? If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study, obviously I wouldnt have taken it, he said. Nobody in our hunting party knew before or after the name of this lion.

So how does giving a storm a name change our attitude towards it?

Evidence suggests that we take it more seriously or at least pay closer attention. A YouGov survey following the first seven named storms in the Met Offices scheme shows that 55 per cent of the people polled took measures to prepare for wild weather after hearing that the oncoming storm had been named.

There was an immediate acceptance of the storm names through all media,said Gerald Fleming, Head of Forecasting at Met ireann, the Irish metereological service. The severe weather messages were more clearly communicated.

But personalising a stormcan backfire. A controversial US study in 2014 by PNAC (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) claimed that hurricanes with female names lead to higher death tolls the more feminine the name, like Belle or Cindy, the higher the death toll. This is not because female names are attached to more severe storms; it is reportedly because people take fewer steps to prepare for storms with names they perceive to be unintimidating or weak.

In judging the intensity of a storm, people appear to be applying their beliefs about how men and women behave, Sharon Shavitt, a co-author of the study, told the FT at the time. This makes a female-named hurricane . . . seem gentler and less violent.

Names have social connotations, and affect our subconscious. Naming a storm can raise awareness of it, but it can also affect our behaviour towards it.

We should also spare a thought for the impact sharing a name with a notorious weather event can have on a person. Katrina Nicholson, a nurse who lives in Glasgow, says it was horrible when the 2005 hurricane one of the fifth deadliest ever in the US was given her name.

It was horrible having something so destructive associated with my name. Homes being destroyed and lives being lost shouldnt be named after any person, she tells me over email. I actually remember at the time meeting an American tourist on a boat trip in Skye and when he heard my name he immediately linked it to the storm although he quickly felt guilty and then said it was a lovely name! I think to this day there will be many Americans who hate my name because of it.

The rest is here:

Emmanuel Macron: a populist eruption from the liberal centre - New Statesman