Ron Mark's sweary slip-up in Parliament this week was unflattering, but what was considered "unparliamentary language" has changed over time. In the 1940s calling another MP a "retardate worm" or claiming that their comments were "idle vapourings of a mind diseased" were frowned upon. Aswas saying "his brains could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides", or the politely macabre "I would cut the honourable gentleman's throat if I had the chance". In the 1950s, calling the opposition "trained seals" and "not fit to lick the shoes of the Prime Minister" was considered too much. In the 1960s insults such as "you are a cheap little twerp/ridiculous mouse/like a snail leaves a slime behind him" were tut-tutted over. In the 1970s suggesting someone "could go down the Mt Eden sewer and come up cleaner than he went in" was considered going unparliamentary, as was saying someone had "dreamed the bill up in the bath". Calling someone "mealy-mouthed" or telling them to "sober up" was also verboten. By the 1980s calling a colleague "Ayatollah" or describing him/her as the "member for Pretoria" or "The Arapawa Goat" was a no-no. As was the phrase "ditch the bitch/Merv the Swerve". (From the indexes of the New Zealand Parliamentary Debates)
Seeing red over yellow
"On Monday we got a Yellow Pages," writes Tony. "On Wednesday we got another. My wife called the number given in the publication and after waiting for a long time spoke to a human. His grip on English was scanty but she tried to explain they were wasting their time and money sending duplicates. Quite what message got through I'm not sure, but on Friday another Yellow Pages arrived."
"The monster's name in Shelley's book might be Adam, but the flowerpot in Sideswipe is Gomez from the Addams Family," writes Gary Stewart. "Originally created by a cartoonist named Addams and later turned into several TV series and films."
