Friday, February 01, 2008

Following in Sir Nicky's illustrious footsteps

For all the continuing furore around Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland calling health minister Ivan Lewis an arsehole, he is not of course the first politician to utter the a-word in the course of parliamentary business.

The word was used by the Scottish Tory maverick Sir Nicholas Fairbairn when he intervened on Tony Blair during a 1994 debate on equalising the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual acts. On this occasion, Hansard actually allowed it through rather than placing the word in asterisks, and the full exchange can be read HERE.

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3 comments:

Jonathan Sheppard said...

Good to see the BBC picking up on this eventually. Well not really - as whilst I tought it an amusing story for my blog (I actually sat in on the debate on Wednesday) it's hardly earth shattering is it.

Anonymous said...

The surprise is that he only found one target to aim his comments at!

James Higham said...

Wish you hadn't written that. Have to go to the toilet now.