Firk Off

The erosion of traditional pub signs and their replacement with efforts ranging from the facetious to the obscene is a national outrage.

Like place names, street names, church dedications, school and other institutional dedications, and much else besides, pub signs tell us an enormous amount about an area.

The Red Lion? Henry VIII, so the Reformation and all that. The White Horse? The House of Hanover, as against that of Stuart. (Of the White Horse Inn that was so critical to the emergence of English Protestantism, I cannot say, although it did of course have very close ties to Germany.) And so on.

The Slug & Lettuce or the Ferret & Firkin also says something.

But not something that any self-respecting person or place would wish to have said about him, her or it.