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webofevilThe Parliamentary Journal shows that MPs in the past weren't scared of a little discourtesy:
At this point in his diary the MP John Milward tantalisingly withholds almost every pertinent detail:
There’s a convention that MPs aren’t allowed to accuse each other of being drunk. However, sometimes it just can’t pass unmentioned:
My favourite moment of historical record, though, remains this Journal entry, in its entirety:
14 March 1651
The question being propounded, That thanks be given to the ministers that preached yesterday before the Parliament;
And the question being put, That that question be now put;
It passed with the negative.
At this point in his diary the MP John Milward tantalisingly withholds almost every pertinent detail:
24 September 1666
Mr Prynne brought in his Bill, which was generally disliked and said to be full of dirty language.
There’s a convention that MPs aren’t allowed to accuse each other of being drunk. However, sometimes it just can’t pass unmentioned:
[From a historical account]: The member for Sussex, Mr Fuller, entered the House in a state of inebriety, and too audibly mistook the Speaker for an owl in an ivy-bush*. He was at once named, and handed over to the Serjeant. The next day the Speaker administered a severe but dignified rebuke.It's not recorded whether he was then flung onto the pavement through a pair of swing doors with the words "... and stay out!".
* “He looks like an owl in an ivy bush”; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze. (1811 edition of Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue)
[From the Parliamentary Debates]: The House being informed that a member of the Committee had misbehaved himself during the sitting of the Committee, making use of profane oaths and disturbing their proceedings—John Fuller Esq., member for Sussex.
Mr Speaker thereupon called Mr Fuller by name: upon which MrFuller was directed to withdraw—and he withdrew accordingly...
After some time the said Mr Fuller returning into the House in a very violent and disorderly manner: Mr Speaker resumed the Chair and ordered the Serjeant to do his duty.
Mr Fuller was accordingly taken out by the Serjeant, assisted by his messengers.
My favourite moment of historical record, though, remains this Journal entry, in its entirety:
14 May 1605
A strange spaniel, of mouse-colour, came into the House.(lifted from Before Hansard, Horace King, 1968)
