The joy generated across the weekend on social media was snuffed out earlier when the Eddie Stobart company announced it wouldn’t name a truck after Connor (despite hundreds of tweets putting his name forward in response to their request for names). The Head of Comms messaged to let me know the ‘no’ last night. Girls names only. We had a brief exchange before I went to bed with a seriously heavy heart. I missed a call from a journalist during a meeting this morning and came out to a BBC report of the news. The story was updated across the day to include the names of men – Lee Rigby, Valentino (Rossi) – who have been named on lorries and a character called Optimus Prime. A Transformer.
The same BBC journalist rang back later and said “You seemed so… so joyful really, in your (blog) post at the weekend. Like you thought it would actually happen…”
Yep. I was and I did. Other people seemed to think so too. The twitter response was an example of the magic generated when a diverse set of people step up and act. The kind of action identified in the Civil Societies Future inquiry report. It involved people who had never met Connor and those who knew him well. Like Deekz:
What’s an Eddie Stobart truck? Er, handing over to Connor here… a loyal, loving and dedicated advocate for all things Eddie Stobart. I was also reminded of this blog post I’d forgotten about; The Eddie Stobart Story. Wow. This must have been when he left the condolence message for Eddie Stobart. [Howl]
By this afternoon my timeline was full of tweets expressing surprise, disappointment and bafflement at the news. Not surprising really. [Why not?]
Some of the key ingredients (for me) of the collective action witnessed in the support for Connor this weekend, and in the civil society stuff, are love, humanity, kindness, community and understanding.
Love, humanity and warmth were fuelling further love, humanity and warmth. The fire burning bright for the Eddie Stobart company to do the right thing.
It would have been so easy for senior Stobart bods to reflect on the extraordinary and unprecedented response to their tweet, do a quick google and decide to chuck their (flaky) name policy out of the window.
A Transformer…
So blooming simple.
Why not?
mydaftlife 
In the face of such a strong case for, the refusal from ES really is a puzzle. A personal connection between the ES management and someone at Slovern perhaps?
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Ever say die, Sara, keep on keeping up the pressure
Was so very brightened by your previous post Sara and so very dispirited by ES response.
I once worked in an NHS organisation – supposedly on development. On my first day the boss told me …” and never ever set a precedent”. I was puzzled. How could change happen if someone didn’t set a precedent? How could there ever be any improvements? Well the answer was there couldn’t be. No creativity, no imagination, no bravery, no changes, no improvements.
So no senior Stobart Boss could set a precedent and do the right thing? Says a lot about the company.
I’m so sorry.
Take care x
Here’s a thought – if all Connor’s supporters bought 1 or more shares in EDDIE STOBART LOGISTICS PLC (currently just 99p each + costs), we could attend a Shareholders’ Meeting and appeal over the heads of the directors! Moreover, for those who can risk more than 1 share, the Dividend Yield for year-ending 30-Nov-17 was 3.69%, a rate that (whilst not guaranteed) is better than any bank! This is suggested for emotional reasons only – nobody should see this as an investment opportunity without first taking professional advice.
More details at https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-markets/stocks/summary/company-summary/GB00BD8QVC95GBGBXASQ1.html
I rang and asked them to do this the year Connor died and was told no then as well… was v frustrated with them when they named one after lee rigby… nothing has changed in the intervening years then …
Well I’ve messaged them directly asking them to explain why not – maybe if very many people do that they’ll rethink. I’ve mentioned that it’s a PR disaster…..
I’m so sorry this didn’t happen. I heard you speak about your son in UCD in January.