Talk:Geddes Axe

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Linguistic influence

I was curious about the origins of "axe" used in the sense of financial cuts, so I looked it up in the online OED, and their earliest citations are for the Geddes Axe. (Which I hadn't heard of before - I thought the Beeching Axe might be the original.) Anyway, as the online OED is hidden behind a registration wall and is not even necessarily free (I have access via my library) I can't provide a link for citation, but I offer the information here anyway, so that (1) people reading the talk page can find this out, and hopefully (2) at some point, someone might figure out a way of incorporating the info into the actual article, maybe providing a page reference for the dead-tree edition of the OED. Here's the earliest citation anyway, in case anyone wants to know:

1922 Glasgow Herald 5 Oct. 7 Another class of military officers for some of whom assistance..may be needed are those who are the unhappy victims of the Geddes economy ‘axe’.

-- 88.109.184.213 (talk) 14:42, 15 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This wasn't in the 21st century

...nor in the time of Henry IV. This article began thus:

The Geddes Axe was the drive for public economy and retrenchment in government expenditure recommended by a Committee on National Expenditure chaired by Sir Eric Geddes and with Lord Inchape, Lord Faringdon, Lord Maclay and Sir Guy Granet also members.

Nothing about what century this was in, let alone what decade. I inserted the words "in the 1920". Michael Hardy (talk) 06:43, 27 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Geddes Axe, not "Geddes's Axe".

It's not "Geddes's Axe". It's the Geddes Axe, from the Geddes Committee and the Geddes Report. Nobody called it "Geddes's Axe", then or since. If Wikipedians want to cover historical events they shouldn't just invent new names for them, it makes the whole piece look utterly ridiculous. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.159.39.32 (talk) 18:20, 18 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with that, even though it was me who moved the article following a request on my talk page. A lot of sources do use Geddes' Axe but it is said that that is an incorrect form of the possesive. SpinningSpark 18:19, 21 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I was the one who mentioned that Geddes' Axe is grammatically incorrect. I have no problem with "The Geddes Axe." Jrt989 (talk) 03:16, 22 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We do not start titles with "The" on Wikipedia unless it is the name of a work. I think my original title of Geddes Axe was best, but I am not going to move the article for a third time. I leave that to someone else. Spinning Spark 13:03, 25 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How do you pronounce Geddes?

and are there citable sources? Marnanel (talk) 15:18, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

/'gedɪs/ according to Pointon, G. E., ed. (1983). BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (Second ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 99. ISBN 0192129767. DuncanHill (talk) 15:29, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Effect of the cuts?

I suggest someone who knows something about this (i.e. not me) adds a section describing the effects of the cuts. The article onEric Geddes says "the public expenditure cuts depressed the economy further", without citation or more detail. Seem to be some parallels here to the UK situation nearly a century later... Masato.harada (talk) 14:26, 13 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]