Name calling in Namibia

Date: 18/04/1996

British Labour Euro MP and Commissioner's wife Glenys Kinnock spent an interesting week in Namibia recently attending the ACP joint assembly - she began as an old boat and ended as an heraldic beast. Well-used to the “junket” tag, which hangs like a cloud over all EU-ACP gatherings, Kinnock was quite amused to be dubbed the “African Queen” by one UK newspaper. After all, it was better than being called Gladys Kinnock, as she had been in a press release put out in Strasbourg the previous week.

But the best was yet to come. As the meeting in Windhoek drew to a close with the MEP locked in conflict with the Nigerian delegation, no less an organ than the Windhoek Advertiser described her as “the fire-breathing Mrs Kinnock”. The African Queen was banished, leaving just a Welsh dragon. Such is the power of the press.