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Congressman Wilson's insult: One more thing we can learn from the Brits
"You lie!' and the art of insult
Rick Soisson
South Carolina's Congressman Joe Wilson has drawn both condemnation and praise for shouting, "You lie!" during President Obama's recent speech about health care. Wilson himself has apologized for his this show of disrespect toward the nation's chief executive, and the president has accepted his apology.
Yet this nationwide flap over "public civility" overlooks a curious point: Few legislatures across the globe are less civil in their discourse than the Parliament of that alleged bastion of civility, Great Britain.
British MPs insult each other with such alacrity that Parliament has even drawn up rules as to what constitutes an acceptable or unacceptable slur. Some insults on the floor of the Parliament must be withdrawn at the Speaker's direction (after they're uttered, of course, and have produced their desired effect).
For example, a Labour MP's characterization of a female Tory parliamentarian as "a second-rate Miss Marple" had to be withdrawn, according to the BBC. (It was withdrawn "without reservation.") John Major, when prime minister, was told to withdraw his characterization of Tony Blair, then the opposition leader, as "a dimwit."
On the other hand, the BBC notes, terms like "political weasel" and "guttersnipe" have passed muster, but the term "rat" has sometimes been permitted and sometimes not.
Direct accusations of lying, such as that uttered by Joe Wilson, have usually meant expulsion from Parliament, but not always: Winston Churchill got away with referring to "terminological inexactitude."
The Labour MP Tony Banks would seem to be the Babe Ruth of such phrase-making. He once accused Margaret Thatcher of behavior displaying "the sensitivity of a sex-starved boa-constrictor." At another juncture he referred to an opponent improbably named Tony Dicks as "living proof that a pig's bladder on the end of a stick can be elected to Parliament." Finally, Nicholas Fairbairn once called female MPs "mostly hideous— they have no fragrance, and I dislike women who deny their femininity. They are just cagmags, scrub heaps, old tattles." He got away without rebuke, if not "disdain."
Cagmag, incidentally, means "a tough, old goose."
So to Congressman Wilson, I say: If you want to go British on us, be my guest. But is "You lie!" the best you can come up with? And to those who scold the Congressman, I say: Won't somebody buy this man a thesaurus?♦
To read a response, click here.
Yet this nationwide flap over "public civility" overlooks a curious point: Few legislatures across the globe are less civil in their discourse than the Parliament of that alleged bastion of civility, Great Britain.
British MPs insult each other with such alacrity that Parliament has even drawn up rules as to what constitutes an acceptable or unacceptable slur. Some insults on the floor of the Parliament must be withdrawn at the Speaker's direction (after they're uttered, of course, and have produced their desired effect).
For example, a Labour MP's characterization of a female Tory parliamentarian as "a second-rate Miss Marple" had to be withdrawn, according to the BBC. (It was withdrawn "without reservation.") John Major, when prime minister, was told to withdraw his characterization of Tony Blair, then the opposition leader, as "a dimwit."
On the other hand, the BBC notes, terms like "political weasel" and "guttersnipe" have passed muster, but the term "rat" has sometimes been permitted and sometimes not.
Direct accusations of lying, such as that uttered by Joe Wilson, have usually meant expulsion from Parliament, but not always: Winston Churchill got away with referring to "terminological inexactitude."
The Labour MP Tony Banks would seem to be the Babe Ruth of such phrase-making. He once accused Margaret Thatcher of behavior displaying "the sensitivity of a sex-starved boa-constrictor." At another juncture he referred to an opponent improbably named Tony Dicks as "living proof that a pig's bladder on the end of a stick can be elected to Parliament." Finally, Nicholas Fairbairn once called female MPs "mostly hideous— they have no fragrance, and I dislike women who deny their femininity. They are just cagmags, scrub heaps, old tattles." He got away without rebuke, if not "disdain."
Cagmag, incidentally, means "a tough, old goose."
So to Congressman Wilson, I say: If you want to go British on us, be my guest. But is "You lie!" the best you can come up with? And to those who scold the Congressman, I say: Won't somebody buy this man a thesaurus?♦
To read a response, click here.
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