Wales@Westminster newslog

The Wales@Westminster weblog, BBC Wales' Parliamentary correspondent David Cornock's diary on political life

Tuesday, 9 January

Wasted words?

posted by David | 1015 GMT |

Parliament may have been for only 24 hours but MPs have already added to their legitimate vocabulary, thanks to an official ruling by the deputy speaker.

The lead characters are Labour MPs Fiona Mactaggart and Paul Flynn, the referee is the deputy speaker Sir Michael Lord. People easily offended by coarse language look away now but this extract from Hansard explains all.

Fiona Mactaggart: Not every local authority can drum up the resources that Westminster council had at its disposal to produce evidence that the statistics on its population were flawed. Slough's evidence is compelling. The council has even counted the amount of shit that goes through our local sewers, which is considerably greater than it was 10 years ago. [Interruption.] I am sure that was not a parliamentary word. I am sorry.

We must try to ensure that errors in statistics are dealt with. Unless the independence that the Bill rightly provides is combined with transparent and robust ways of remedying errors and a dynamic relationship with people who are affected, we will not get the trust in statistics that the Bill seeks to achieve.

Paul Flynn: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Following your lack of ruling on the word that the hon. Lady used, I would be interested to know whether it is appropriate to use that word as a noun, but not as an adjective.

Mr. Deputy Speaker: The hon. Gentleman can take it that it was appropriate to use the word in the way that the hon. Lady used it, otherwise I would have intervened.

Fiona Mactaggart: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.