Unparliamentary Expressions, Sixties Edition
14 Feb
So I’m working on a couple of things at the moment. One of them involves some research through our nation’s archives. In the midst of my preliminary reading on Singapore’s legislative assembly debates of the 60s (this involves hours of sitting in a dark room squinting at microfilm), I became fixated by the list of “unparliamentary expressions” — words the Speaker had thrown out and/or demanded retractions of, for being unbecoming. Recorded for our future reference.
A sampling.
“Doing dirty things”, “Mealy mouthed”, “members are afflicted with insanity”, “Perfidious fools”, “Prevarication”, “Vested interest in lies and falsehoods”, “an unprincipled petty plotter”, “Beetles”, “Petty vendor of recklessness and sensationalism”, “Megalomaniac”, “Parliamentary jester”, “Nefarious purpose”… and my favourite, “Twirps”.
Even better when you’re reading all this in the context of the actual debates — who knew parliamentary debates were so… vibrant! In another life, I wanted to be a Southeast Asian history academic. I guess one of the great thing about my job — jobs? — is how I get to do a bit of all the things I love.
