This year the code was based on UK parliamentary constituencies via the MPs that represent them. The message is made up of names of MPs – members of the House of Commons. Each MP’s name then represents the name of his or her constituency, and thereby the initial letter of that constituency name. These initial letters build into the card’s message.
Front page
This translates as:
Glenda Jackson: Hampstead & Highgate
John Reid: Airdrie & Shotts
Yvette Cooper: Pontefract & Castleford
Douglas Alexander: Paisley & Renfrewshire South
David Laws: Yeovil
Harriet Harman: Camberwell & Peckham
Diane Abbott: Hackney North & Stoke Newington
Jacqui Smith: Redditch
Jeremy Corbyn: Islington North
David Blunkett: Sheffield, Brightside
Vincent Cable: Twickenham
Lembit Öpik: Montgomeryshire
Geoff Hoon: Ashfield
Hazel Blears: Salford
– giving:
Inside page
This translates as:
Damian Green: Ashford
Ian Paisley: North Antrim
Edward Miliband: Doncaster North
Gerry Adams: Belfast West
Andy Slaughter: Ealing, Acton & Shepherd’s Bush
Nick Clegg: Sheffield, Hallam
David Lammy: Tottenham
John Redwood: Wokingham
Danny Alexander: Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey
David Miliband: South Shields
Greg Hands: Hammersmith & Fulham
Stephen Timms: East Ham
John Gummer: Suffolk Coastal
Mark Durkan: Foyle
Michael Meacher: Oldham West & Royton
Denis MacShane: Rotherham
George Osborne: Tatton
David Davis: Haltemprice & Howden
Chris Huhne: Eastleigh
Angus MacNeil: Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Michael Mates: East Hampshire
David Cameron: Witney
Albert Owen: Ynys Môn
Stephen Pound: Ealing North
Judy Mallaber: Amber Valley
Kenneth Clarke: Rushcliffe
Michael Howard: Folkestone & Hythe
Alan Duncan: Rutland & Melton
Evan Harris: Oxford West & Abingdon
Elfyn Llwyd: Meirionnydd Nant Conwy
Alex Salmond: Banff & Buchan
Charles Kennedy: Ross, Skye & Lochaber
Don Touhig: Islwyn
David Lidington: Aylesbury
Sir Menzies Campbell: North East Fife
Alasdair McDonnell: Belfast South
Anne Begg: Aberdeen South
William Hague: Richmond (Yorks)
Gordon Brown: Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath
Alistair Darling: Edinburgh South West
Susan Kramer: Richmond Park
– giving:
I chose generally better-known names in order to make it comparatively easy – especially for my overseas recipients – to see that they were, in fact, MPs, and I avoided being partisan by including representative members from most political parties and consequently from most regions of the UK. I couldn’t resist the only MP with an accented name, or choosing the constituency with an accented name, Ynys Môn (Anglesey), or one with an official Gaelic name, Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles). (Interestingly, the UK parliamentary constituency uses the Gaelic name, whereas the identical Scottish parliamentary constituency uses the English name.) Oh, and I included my own MP for good measure.
I couldn’t obtain digits this way, of course, so I could not include “2009”. Neither could I use Roman numerals (MMIX), since there is no constituency with an initial “X”. I had to use the simple “the new year”.
Version 4: Revised 13 December 2017
Brian Barker