Thursday, July 30, 2009

Pounding the Depths

There's little more hilarious than the British media howling in self righteous indignation. And that's what they're doing this morning, as David Cameron's twitter comments transform themselves into 'Twatgate'.

But when Stephen Pound is rolled out to comment you just know that depths are being plumbed. Mr Pound is often given to the odd bit of fruity language himself, yet he sees fit to slag off David Cameron. Funny that. Pound's emergence is a sure sign that the story has no legs.

89 comments:

  1. Cameron was refreshingly funny and anyone who took offence ought to grow up.

    Pound, once again, looks and sounds as silly and irrelevant as ever. What a twat.

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  2. Bring out the gimpJuly 30, 2009 9:10 am

    Cant stand the twat
    and he's got a face like a smacked arse.

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  3. snaAuntie Beeb was so incensed by DC's language that they replayed the "twat" tape without bleeping it.

    Clearly a silly season story and Newsnight could have spent the time more usefully.

    Have enjoyed Nick Robinson the last few nights so well done to him - hope to see him back more regularly

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  4. The Cameron thing was fantastic, and also not against Ofcom regulations.

    Didn't Pound tell a disagreeable radio listener to fuck off, or similar, during the last general election? I think I approved of that too.

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  5. grumpy old manJuly 30, 2009 9:19 am

    It is the first day of August, after all. PoliticsHome has gone on half days. The "A" shift of political journos are off to Benidorm and the Colts have been left to get on with it.
    BTW. "twit" means to upbraid or find fault in a facetious or annoying way. I suggest that the cap fits perfectly.

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  6. Pound = hypocricy. Was he not the chap who said he would give his parliamentary time to Radio 4 today programme, but when they held a vote to allow self-defence, he then backed out of the deal?

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  7. Grumpy Old Man said: "It is the first day of August..."

    No it's not - that's in two days time. Senility setting in early Grumpy?

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  8. Pound, eh? Just take a look at his other recent utterances about Expenses etc etc. The man is a hypocritical cretin. His attempt to talk up a non-story is just more of the same.

    I don't give a toss about people's language or vocabulary. It's what they do and the actual content of what they say which is important. And it's sod-all to do with how they say it.

    But, once again, people like Pound seize upon the irrelevant in an attempt to mask the realities. I'm really surprised that anyone believes this is worth more than two seconds of airtime. On second thoughts, maybe that's not so surprising, given Pound's delight in being in front of the cameras and given the seasonal stupidity of the televisual media generally.

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  9. I think DC will take serious issue with Pound describing him as middle-aged.

    He's a rum 'un, old Pound. Most of the time, he makes for excellent interviewing - opinionated, amusing, intelligent - but then he undoes all the good work by doing the attack-dog act on behalf of the Party.

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  10. I've actually been impressed with David Cameron's self control over recent months because if I had been involved in PMQs as leader of the opposition I would have used far stronger language towards Brown out of sheer frustration and anger.

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  11. 'Twa't is used far more commonly to mean a stupid and silly person than to refer to the female pudenda. Someone must be taking the Mickie (which, incidentally derives from micturition - ie taking the piss).

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  12. Since the story next to it this morning on the BBC 'politics' page was about whether or not Cameron would have a cat in Number 10, I don't think the outrage is destined to last.

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  13. Canmeron should resign.

    Swearing is far worse than creating a recession.

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  14. What worries me about Cameron's comment was that it was silly. Somehow or other we need to get real debate out of the playground, and about real issues, although just how politicians spend their time is becoming one at the moment.

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  15. The hysteria that is whipped up by the media in a heartbeat is sad and predictable.

    Twat is a commonly used word, and is dished out by the masses daily. The press will be carving Cameron's words in stone next and letting off fireworks spelling TWAT, fuelled by Gordon and Mandy by shady deals handled under the table near election time.

    And yet, the world still turns and orbits the sun, the cosmos doesn't give a toss, and life goes on.

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  16. Too precious by far some people!
    Did nobody notice DC said 'pissed off' in the same interview? Tut Tut!

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  17. Duncan in DevonJuly 30, 2009 10:29 am

    Quite agree with all. It most certainly is 'what you do' and 'not what you say. And just for the record I think McBroon and the rest of his goons are all berks.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berk

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  18. Gerry Adams used 'pissed off' on the BBC and didn't apologise. It was reported by the beeb and everybody else at all times of the day and the beeb reported it in a manner that he was talking straight to the public, gave him a pat on the back.

    This is nonsense.

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  19. This was probablya planned spin exercise by the etonian worth millions to look normal.

    A bit like "I'm a straight kind of guy"

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  20. Are they still banging on about this? So some posh bloke talks like the rest of us, so what?

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  21. As ever the BBC miss the point. Cameron said it intentionally. The guy is too smart to mistakenly swear and he in fact pauses before he says "twat". It's abundantly clear that if Cameron is to be criticised for anything, it is his phoney attempt to appear "with it".

    Cameron has played the BBC and come out looking like a regular guy which is precisely what he intended to do from the outset.

    But it was a stunt and you know it was.

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  22. The sight of smug looking Pound just makes me switch channels over immediately, can't stand the fella. He thinks he's so funny and 'one of the people' - is he hell.

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  23. I read several newspapers. There's a definate agenda at the moment about "posh, shallow" Cameron and Osborne, lumped in with 27 year olds getting into Parliament with little outside experience.
    Cameron should say nothing more and go off on holiday.

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  24. DC spoke the truth.
    Most twitterers are TWATS. (Iain obviously meets the exclusion factor).
    LieBour are really reaching to make anything of anything and score a few pathetic points. The leftie agitprop will no doubt link TWATS to a new breed of underclass, who are socially deprived as a result of Tory policy cuts and in need of a help line and special funding.
    Gordo is a TWAT and LieBour is full of twats.
    Afterall we can't use TWIT, can we:-

    A British slang word for an insignificant, foolish or annoying person.
    A pregnant (or ripe) goldfish (I do not think there is any evidence to back this up, it appears to be a urban legend)

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  25. I've blogged on this too. To be honest, it didn't offend me. I thought it al bit silly, almost contrived, but not worth all the fuss.

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  26. anonymous said.
    This was probablya planned spin exercise by the etonian worth millions to look normal.

    whats normal look like to an inverted snob like you then ?

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  27. I seem to detect a tone of unease in your posts when you think that there is something that has the potential to damage the dear leader. "There's no story. Let's talk about something else".

    To me, 'twat' is fairly mild. But I swear a lot. Many people find it quite offensive, as a milder version of the c-word.

    The Absolute rado team blogged at the time that Cameron didn't seem to know what it meant, because he was too posh, which may be true. think it's certainly the case that the upper middle classes are more comfortable with swearing than the rest of society. That's why the broadsheets are less likely to censor obscenity than the tabs.

    So while most of your readers probably couldn't care less about Cameron swearing and may even see it as a positive (he's just like us'), it may not lay out quite that way in the country generally.

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  28. I'm not sure the the press is "howling" about this - I just checked the front pages of every serious paper and it's not there. The BBC does not have it on the front page of any relevant section in the news website.

    Could it be that in fact you are talking this up, as it makes "Dave" sound blokey and man of the people? Is this some ultra-devious spinmongering?

    I do think so - it even sounded pre-planned on the recording.

    I am not sure that these tricks will work in the long-term - the old Etonian married to the Queen's relative is going to come up a lot at the election even if he does go all sweary.

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  29. For a penny Pound would be overpriced.
    He is a twat!

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  30. Labour trots Mr Punch out on all such occasions. "Look, I am a reasonable and genial old chap but the Tories...."

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  31. I cannot believe that Cameron didn't know what this word meant.

    The comments in The Guardian from the presenter saying Cameron was too posh to know this were priceless!

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  32. It's well known that Pound will turn up at short notice to give us all the benefit of his opinion in return for a few bob from the broadcaster. A bit like "ABD" - Anthony Beaumont-Dark, then known in the media as "any body will do". Sad!

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  33. a cunning linguistJuly 30, 2009 12:16 pm

    I cannot believe that Cameron didn't know what this word meant.

    hang on, what does it mean? You see, if we accept that words change their meaning when used for different things ('gay' meaning homosexual rather than 'carefree', for example) and that words can be made bad by association (the originally perfectly good abbreviation 'paki' is now a racial insult and - quite rightly - not used simply to refer to pakistanis, whereas 'afghan', uzbeck' and 'kazack' are all fine, despite being almost identically linguistically) then it follows that since 'twat' is used to mean 'idiot', and no-one uses it to mean 'pudenda' it now does mean 'idiot'.

    No-one would have complained if he'd said 'berk', and that's rhyming slang for 'c**t'. But no-one seems to know that so even vicars use it.

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  34. The word twat, as I understand it, means "idiot" (he's a bit of a twat). It isn't used to mean any part of anyone's anatomy.

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  35. "to0 many tweets make a twat." Never a truer word spoken, Well done DC.

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  36. Is this new, anti-colloquialism Beeb the same BBC which defended as 'edgy' Jonathon Ross's and Russell Brand's appallingly offensive 'sketch', riddled with the foulest expletives, which made explicit jokes about Andrew Sach committing suicide and foul mouthed remarks about Brand's relations with Sach's grand daughter?

    Such twattish hypocrisy from the BBC and such pathetic desperation from zanulab and its payroll vote are clearly motivated by a pathetic, last ditch attempt to smear Cameron and damage the Conservative's excellent poll ratings.

    Cameron will win far more votes with his normality than he will ever lose for his use of a couple of harmless and commonly used colloquialisms.

    The BBC recently rejected a post of mine about twats, twitting themselves on twitter: on the grounds I'd used offensive language! Roll on the election, then we can show the zanulabbers at the Beeb how rejection really feels.

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  37. Yeah have these people not got anything better to do than slag off the Tory leader over a bit of banter on Radio. It was funny, granted, and we've all had a five minutes of fun about it, but let's move on...

    By the way would you want a signed copy of Prezza and co's book Pulling No Punches? All gravy trainers together...

    http://www.plenty2say.com

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  38. "But at night, brother Howlet, far over the woods,

    Toll the world to thy chantry;

    Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods

    Full complines with gallantry:

    Then, owls and bats, cowls and twats,

    Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,

    Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!"

    By Robert Browning 1841

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  39. I am more concerned about the Downing Street cat dying. Did Gordon wish it good luck or something?

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  40. I find it interesting how the rightwing blogesphere change when it affects one of there own.

    if this would have been the pm you would have accused brown of disgracing himself .

    when its cameron its all a bit of fuss about nothing.

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  41. Despairing Liberal

    I went to Slough Grammar. Does that make ma a better candidate for PM than Cameron.

    Or is it possible that the school our respective parents sent us to has absolutely no bearing on our suitabilty for elected office?

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  42. Mr Pound should get out a bit more...

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  43. This sounds like a bit of personal needle, Iain. What has Steve Pound done to get under your skin in the past?

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  44. I do wonder if there are people like me who have never heard the word before? I am mature and read extensively. I am sure there are others who on listening to the broadcast would have assumed that DC meant it would be silly to use twitter. If the word means nothing to me then I cannot be offended. If David Cameron knew the meaning of the word then he should not have used it. Jane

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  45. A Cunning Linguist - To add to your point, a "gay house" in the 19th century was a brothel - and not the Cleveland Street kind.

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  46. I really don't get the fuss over this. Cameron only used phrases the rest of us would. And he's right - whatever the etymology, 'twat' is hardly a swear word these days, is it?

    I think the only thing he's really guilty of is being amusing, which to some of the press appears to be a high crime in a politician...

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  47. I am not sure that these tricks will work in the long-term - the old Etonian married to the Queen's relative is going to come up a lot at the election even if he does go all sweary.

    If I said that someone who attended Bogside Comprehensive and was in a civil union with a black man named Ayokunle was innately unfit to participate in politics, I would be lynched for homophobia, racism, classism and God-knows-what-ism. Yet if I say that a man who attended Eton and is married to a white woman called Samantha is innately unfit to participate in politics, I'm the defender of liberalism, freedom and human rights.

    Can someone please explain this to me? To my poor ignorant self, it looks a lot like DespairingLiberal is a racist, classist bigot who seeks to discriminate against anyone whose background and lifestyle he disapproves but I know that can't be so. Can it?

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  48. I doubt you are so naive Charles, despite the faux-naive logic in your argument. Eton is a bastion of privilege and all about cementing hereditary control of wealth and power at the top of British society. Cameron is an retrograde example of proving that it works, as our most of his shadow cabinet. Do we really want to go back to the days of Macmillan, Eden and Douglas-Home, tweed-jacketed country gentleman amateurs running the country from their clubs?

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  49. @ Bill Baker

    What has 'Steve' Pound done to annoy me?


    Breathing, for a start. He's a complete waste of Oxygen.

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  50. We'll know for sure it's all over when you're on Iain. David Ottewell has suggested on his blog that this is a case of North-South divide. Pound is asked to go on and make a case. A debater. He doesn't have to believe it he just plays the part he's given like a good 'un. That's useful for broadcasters. They don't want people to come on and say it's a non-story.

    My view is that Cam did this on purpose, that the whole thing is manipulated, and that it has worked. Coulson has remembered his job. A miracle, a miracle!

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  51. John Bunyan -

    "Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not twat men say,
    I’ll labour night and day to be a grimpil."

    So there you have it...

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  52. "I do wonder if there are people like me who have never heard the word before? I am mature and read extensively"

    If you haven't ever heard the word, you must have lived an extremely sheltered life!

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  53. It is the Silly Season, isn't it?

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  54. When Wayne Rooney comes across people like Stephen Pound he usually shouts: "Fuck off grandad".

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  55. Of Topic (well why should I post it in PB.com??)

    The Guardian kindly point out
    "Union flag left off identity cards in order to recognise Irish nationals' rights in NI"

    "The union flag has been left off the final design of the national identity card unveiled today in order to recognise the "identity rights" of Irish nationals living in Northern Ireland."

    "A recent Identity and Passport Service impact assessment of the next phase of the ID card scheme says it is important that it is designed in a way that is open to everyone who has the right to live in the United Kingdom – whether they are British, Irish or a national from another country."

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/30/northern-ireland-identity-cards-shamrock?commentpage=2&commentposted=1

    Can you possibly get any more insane ?? Maybe we can - with the Queen of Hearts in Downing St, The Mad Hatter in the Treasury and the White Rabbit now in the Home Office. The Govts Knave of Hearts appears to be everywhere these days.

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  56. I'm out of step with every comment here. Cameron is a fool to emulate Labour's macho vulgarity. People are sick it and are looking for a change. I'd suggest that decency, consideration and economic concern would be a good start.

    Sadly, Cameron and his giggling party advisers haven't a clue of the electorate's desires.

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  57. You have just got to believe that British people get the Mainstream Media and the Government our intelligence demands.
    An opposition politician says a couple of words that most folk would not recognise as swear words and it immediately dominates the airwaves and preoccupies Government politicians to the exclusion of all else.
    Meanwhile young servicemen are dying in foreign fields for a cause no-one can explain. A fact that leads to Government politicians lying to the public whilst betraying these servicemen at every turn and hardly a cheep is said about it.
    It is the capability of this banality to conquer the airwaves and peoples' thoughts that leads me to the sorry conclusion that the electorate in this Country are most likely to vote Labour into a fourth term in office.

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  58. It just goes to show the truth of Cameron's words - as there certainly seem to both kinds of "Tw"'s appearing on the air waves to-day trying to make something out of this total "non-story". Labour supporters must be truly desperate.First they try to re-hash an old "scandal" on AndyCoulson and when that failed dismally to gain traction they flounder around for something else to be "scandalised" about and criticise Cameron for using a word that is in general daily usage by a great many people.

    Nobody cares,Comrades!Particularly when the country is in debt up to it's eyeballs;we're fighting an unwinnable war with heavy casulaties in Afghanistan and the unemployed are nearing 3 million all on Brown's Watch. If I was you I'd be more concerned about those facts than a puerile argument about Cameron using a "naughty word" on radio! No wonder the country's in the mess it is !!

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  59. Who is this Pound fellow?

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  60. Eton is a bastion of privilege and all about cementing hereditary control of wealth and power at the top of British society.

    No, Eton is a school. It's a school that provides a widely respected educational syllabus and funds copious merit-based scholarships.

    Eton alumni are not favoured because of "hereditary control of wealth and power" but because someone who went to Eton will, on average, have a better education than someone who went to Crapside Comp. They will know more things, be more literate, be more effective at communicating and have better reasoning skills and understanding of science and the arts.

    The problem, DL, is not with Eton being unfair (it patently is not). The problem is that state-funded schools offer such a poor education. It is striking that you are uninterested in fixing state schools and improving the education of the majority who depend on state-funded schools and that, instead, you're only concerned with dragging other schools down to the comprehensive level.

    I'm a Conservative because I want everyone to be equal - meaning they should have equal opportunities based on merit and personal ability. You're a socialist because you want everyone to be equal - meaning equally poor, equally stupid, equally oppressed, equally uneducated.

    I will leave aside the fact that you're silent on the privilege enjoyed by the likes of Tony Benn (Westminster School, New College Oxon) or Anthony Blair (Fettes College, St John's Oxon). I'll even leave aside the fact that your party introduced fees that price the poor out of education. Privilege in your eyes is only offensive when applied to people who aren't in the Labour Party.

    As an aside, you may care to note that David Cameron did not make a decision to send himself to Eton. His parents did. You seek, therefore, to punish the adult for the "crimes" of the parent. Pathetic and despicable.

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  61. Do we really want to go back to the days of Macmillan, Eden and Douglas-Home, tweed-jacketed country gentleman amateurs running the country from their clubs?

    Michael Howard, William Hague and David David attended state-funded schools and would not have gone to university but for student grants and free tuition. Tony Blair attended one of the most expensive and exclusive public schools in Scotland.

    Do you really want to get into a contest comparing Old Boys' Clubs? I warn you, if you do, it's a contest your party will lose every time.

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  62. Despairing Liberal,

    Dare I say that Macmillan et al did a better job of running the country than Gordon Brown and his team have done?

    More importantly, I'm impressed by how certain informed you are about exactly what Eton is "all about". Some of my best friends are Etonians (am I allowed to say that without getting lynched?) and I reckon they come across as being an about average mix of nice guys, arrogant t*ats (to use the mot de jour), talented artists and useless waste-of-spaces.

    I heard Eric Anderson (Blair's housemaster before he became Cameron's headmaster) speak once and he made the point that Eton was "all about" training up people to have inquiring minds and a curiousity about life. You could do worse that have people like that involved in the Cabinet - provided, of course, that they are there on merit

    Or do you believe that someone's background/religion/colour of their skin/sex* (*delete as appropriate) is a better way of deciding who gets a particular job?

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  63. I always thought 'tw*t' was a variation on 'twit' and not another term for 'c*nt'. I did not understand what the fuss was about until my husband enlightened me today. I did go to a Glasgow comprehensive so I don't think my upbringing was too sheltered...

    As for the theory that DC said 'tw*t' because being 'posh' he did not understand - in my experience 'posh' people swear like f**king troopers.

    As far as 'p*ssed off' is concerned - I am sure 90% of those under 65 use the expression.

    It would probably upset our 90 year Conservative Association Patron (but the I am sure she heard worse in the war).

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  64. Go to the Times website. Put in the search box - twat. The engine comes up with 104 entries. But there is another search box on this page with your original word - twat -, and underneath it has the legend - e.g. Prime Minister.

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  65. No legs?

    Not the story I listened to on the radio this morning.

    Dave was wasted and not becoming of the next Prme Minister.

    In your dreams, Dave, keep up the good work.

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  66. I have always been amazed by the common use of the word 'twat' in the UK...until I realised that in this country it is used to describe a jerk. In the States it is used to describe a part of the female anatomy and is NEVER uttered in polite company let alone on television although it was employed with some hilarity in an episode of Denis Leary's brilliant 'Rescue Me'. In that episode the FDNY boys were hauled off to an equality class with even more hilarious consequences with the Hispanic firefighter complaining that the Hispanics only had one ethnic slur pertaining to them while the Irish had dozens - which they happily named, with Italian, Jewish, German and Black ones thrown in for good measure.

    Moral of the story - lighten up, Pound!

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  67. Cameron has contributed to a further coarsening of society. This kind of language is fine within one's circle, but shouldn't be forced on people who may have more self-restraint, and more extensive vocabularies.

    This confirms to me that Cameron is a nasty piece of work. Don't tell me this wasn't deliberate - to make himself look angry and to make himself sound like the way he imagines the proles talk.

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  68. Since when was the word "Twat" a swear word?? Presumably only in the eyes of the BBC and the left wing since Cameron used it.
    What I do find offensive is the number of real swear words on the BBC usually uttered by people who are paid millions of pounds to say them.
    I think Cameron should use the word frequently; the left would get worked up into a frenzy to such a state that even their own working class supporters would realise how d**** stupid they were being.

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  69. Pound obviously reads Conservative Home as his comment was lifted root and branch from something someone wrote on there!

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  70. Lady Finchley 'twit' is the term used to describe a stupid nitwit. Cameron's deliberate use of the coarse version was deliberate because this is how he thinks the "little people" talk amongst themselves. Whereas "the little people" maintain higher standards of behaviour and language than Dave's group. Badly behaved, drunken, destructive yobs are called "yobs". In Dave's group, they're called Bullingdon Boys.

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  71. Apologies, rather off topic. I see the politically correct donkeys who rule us are censoring the Union flag now. They're a delicate bunch of flowers. Idiots.

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  72. Verity said.
    Whereas "the little people" maintain higher standards of behaviour and language than Dave's group.

    You mean pixies?

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  73. Oh dear Verity you will go to any lengths to deride Cameron - just who would suit you as a party leader?? And which party.
    Cameron is a nasty piece of work??? Last time I saw a thread from you he was too weak too soft.
    Now he is too nasty. Who ever you are 'verity' -- I doubt anyone can take you seriously.

    "Tony Blair attended one of the most expensive and exclusive public schools in Scotland." -- a fact which shoots down any Labour 'toff' taunts.

    And BTW - Harriet Harman is the daughter of a Harley St doctor and her mother was a solicitor and her grandfather a group captain in the RAF and her great grandfather came from a family of wealthy paper merchants (it became the largest and most productive paper company in the world).
    She too went to an independent school (so posh it had Gustav Holst as its music director).
    Ms Harman stinks of wealth and privilege.

    And of course Michael Foot went to private school.

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  74. Kenneth MortonJuly 30, 2009 5:39 pm

    I knew Precious Pound at Hertford Grammar School. At that time he was not called Steven and his politics was somewhat to the right of his position as a New Labour MP

    At the time of the 1964 Election he stood as an independent, maverick candidate and for a week or so I was his agent. We fell out over something but I do not remember what.

    He was a joker even then. He would gather public meetings during the lunch break and baffle us all by speaking in Latin.
    I had no idea whether he was talking sense.

    In a way he has never really matured. His quirky sense of humour seems to have held him back from being anything more than a PPS or a summer holiday backstop

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  75. "Cameron has contributed to a further coarsening of society."
    Rubbish. He may be reflecting the attitudes and language of wider society, though. No doubt you'd prefer him to talk to everyone like some sort of Patrician orator, only then you'd complain that he was patronising and remote.

    "This kind of language is fine within one's circle, but shouldn't be forced on people who may have more self-restraint, and more extensive vocabularies."
    Garbage. 'One's circle' WTF is that? Next up, Soirees. Nobody is 'forcing' anyone to do anything here. There's always the Off Button.

    "This confirms to me that Cameron is a nasty piece of work."
    The customary Verity animus.

    "Don't tell me this wasn't deliberate - to make himself look angry and to make himself sound like the way he imagines the proles talk."
    So, where's your evidence of it being 'deliberate'? Where's any evidence at all about what he imagines of 'the proles' (your choice of term)?

    "Lady Finchley 'twit' is the term used to describe a stupid nitwit. Cameron's deliberate use of the coarse version was deliberate because this is how he thinks the "little people" talk amongst themselves. Whereas "the little people" maintain higher standards of behaviour and language than Dave's group. Badly behaved, drunken, destructive yobs are called "yobs". In Dave's group, they're called Bullingdon Boys."
    Hilarious. I'm a 'little person' - and I think you're talking complete bollox.

    As I've said here before, those who choose to attack styles of speech are not interested in content. They merely wish to control by attacking irrelevancies.

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  76. Seventy odd comments about Cameron saying "twat", not one about the Fifeshire Feartie refusing to saying "sorry".
    It must be the start of the silly season!

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  77. I wonder what Coulson will come up with next in the "Sweary Blokey Dave" thing? Maybe he should get him to gob on the street in public.

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  78. Verity, if you saw David Cameron walking over the Thames, you would say it was only because he couldn't swim.

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  79. Does the Beeb realise that using that twit 'Rent-a-Gob Pound does so much for the Tory cause? What a (pr)at.

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  80. Anonymong 8:30 - do you seriously in your deluded anti-Beeb hysterical state "think" that the Beeb deliberately places in the relevant Labour spokespeople according to some bizarre ritual leftie-bias hidden machine? They are put up by Labour HQ.

    Some of you beeb bashers are straightforwardly f**k*** mental - it's like a disease.

    Does it come on from having read to much Hitchens? You do realise he was a full-on Trot in his youth don't you? Once a trot, always a trot.

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  81. Chuck Unsworth et al - I'm sorry I didn't write in simple enough language for you to understand. Or perhaps your teacher hasn't got to "irony" yet.

    Trevorsden, this is also directed at you.

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  82. Golden Balls @ July 30, 2009 1:03 PM

    "If this would have been the pm you would have accused brown of disgracing himself "

    Well old chap, Brown disgraces himself for every day, hour and minute he is Prime Minster, with the current policies he is undertaking, we will all unemployed, poor and the country will be bankrupt.

    labour's disgrace speaks for itself – e.g. their disgusting treatment of our men and women in our armed forces, those who work for Queen and Country deserve better than the treatment melted out by this regime.

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  83. The Absolute rado team blogged at the time that Cameron didn't seem to know what it meant, because he was too posh, which may be true.

    Anyone who believed that of David Cameron would have to be an utter twat...

    And how interesting that the Daily Mirror thought that one word was a "rant"? They didn't really. Meaning the Mirror is staffed by twats.

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  84. Twat is not an offensive word! In fact, it is underused.

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  85. Twat is not an offensive word! In fact, it is underused.

    July 31, 2009 12:48 AM

    especially in the case of despairing liberal.

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  86. @ Verity

    I think most here probably 'understood'. However, you seem not to 'understand' that many 'disagree' with your pronouncements - 'irony' notwithstanding.

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  87. Dave Cameron member of Bullingdon Club - so what!

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  88. Chuck Unsworth writes, "However, you seem not to 'understand' that many 'disagree' with your pronouncements -".

    No. I do understand that many disagree with me. That's what we have blogs for.

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  89. jon dee kicked off this comments page by advising that "anyone who took offence ought to grow up". Who are this army of superior, mature people who infest all the blogs in the Anglosphere advising other people to "grow up"? What is it about the term that enamours them so? The chance to feel superior to at least someone, even if it's only a person they know nothing about?indenct

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