When is a row not a row?
Reflecting on the "row" between the Lib Dems and the Tories over wind farms (whether there should be more or fewer of them in the British countryside), I asked listeners to BBC Radio 4's Today programme to help me come up with a new word to describe coalition "rows" which it suits both sides to have and to publicise the fact that the coalition is "consciously uncoupling" - like Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin.
Here are the best suggestions I saw (there may be more now on my twitter thread @bbcnickrobinson):
- "Sprats" - ie putting the PR into a spat
- "Prows" (PR rows)
- "Fraying to the gallery"
One cynic suggested that no new word was needed since "bloody politics" was a perfectly good description. One believer in plural politics preferred "open internal debate".
Finding an impartial new word - agreeable to both sides of the coalition let alone their opponents - could prove to be tricky.
New ideas still gratefully received.