Queynte

As well as yesterday’s misnaming of Jeremy Hunt MP on Radio 4, on what history will no doubt come to label “Cunty Monday”, let’s not forget that Parliament itself was also keen to get in on the act:

Mrs Hodgson: Does the Minister think that those cuts to front-line policing will make my constituents safer?

Nick Herbert: I do not accept that those are cuts—

Hon. Members: What was that?

Mr Speaker: Order. Opposition Members’ hearing is playing tricks with them. They did not hear what they thought they heard.

Nick Herbert: Mr Speaker, I am in very good company today. [Hansard]

Commons Hansard has of course corrected the Minister’s obvious error (which is part of its brief) but there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind, including his own, about what he accidentally said.

Not that this is the first time in the chamber. As Simon Hoggart reported in 2000,

Defence minister John Spellar tried to say, “We recognised that these cuts in the defence medical services had gone too far”, but he inserted an unwanted letter “n” in the word “cuts”. It still made perfect sense. [Guardian]