SLANG IN THE HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 31, 5 August 1921, Page 3

SLANG IN THE HOUSE

When Mr. Jack Jonee remarked in the House of Commons a few weeks ago that' someone had "got the wind up" there was a startled protest from the other tide of the House; and yet Mr. Jones was only carrying on what seems to be the new, tradition of alangineas in Parliament, «aya the Manchester Guardian. Years ago Mr. Birrell remarked that the day of oratory in the Commons was dead, and that members preferred the tense, rather businest-. like Asquithian style.,: Mr. Asquith; is never slangy, but the descent from the careful periods 'of v" Yictorianism may be traced through his use. of eyery-day- ianguaee down the slang which seems to Be becoming popular. In the Lord* we have had Lord Lamingion, a very oorrect peer, denouncing. Government for "queering the pitch," which is not much more elegant than Mr. Jones's effort. Unfortunately for those who' still read Parliamentary debates, there seems to be no way of stemming the descent into clang. There are a number of phrases of which a Speaker must take censorious notice, but these are generally confined to. phrases calculated to raise the temperature of the House and to provoke disorder. The Speaker would probably shrink from, the responsibility of preserving intact the King's English. -■.'".,

Woods' Great Peppermint Cure--1 For Coughs and Colds never, iaifs.