Whats a snollygoster A short lesson in political speak Mark Forsyth

one of my favorite words in the whole of

the Oxford English Dictionary is

snallygaster just cuz it sounds so good

and what’s nollie Coster means is a

dishonest politician although there was

a nineteenth-century newspaper editor

who does to find it rather better when

he said it’s nollie gosta is a fellow

who seeks office regardless of party

platform or principal and who when he

wins gets there by the sheer force of

monumental talk Norfolk Allah some mercy

now I have no idea what talk nautical is

something to do with words I assume but

it’s very important that words are the

center of politics and all politicians

know they have to try and control

language

it wasn’t until for example 1771 that

the British Parliament allowed

newspapers to report the exact words

that were said in the debating chamber

and this was actually all down to the

bravery of a guy with the extraordinary

name of brass crows Barry who took on

Parliament and he was thrown into the

Tower of London and imprisoned and but

he was brave enough he was brave enough

to take them on and in the end he has

such popular support in London that he

won and it was only a few years later

that we have the first recorded use of

the phrase as Bold As Brass most people

think that’s down to the metal it’s not

it’s down to a campaigner for the

freedom of the press but to really show

you how words and politics interact I

want to take you back to the United

States of America just after their

decieved independence and they had to

face the question of what to call George

Washington their leader they didn’t know

what do you call the leader of a

Republican country and and this was

debated in Congress for ages and ages

and there were all sorts of suggestions

on the table which might have made it I

mean some people wanted him to be called

chief magistrate Washington and other

people his highness George Washington

and other people protector of the lip

protector of the liberties of people of

the United States of America Washington

not that catchy

some people just wanted to call him King

they thought it was try

and tested and they weren’t even being

Menaka cool there they had the idea that

you could be elected king for a fixed

term and you know could have worked um

everybody got insanely bored actually

because this debate went on for three

weeks I read a diary of this poor

senator who just keeps coming back I was

still on this subject and the reason for

the delay in the boredom was that um the

House of Representatives were against

the Senate a House of Representatives

didn’t want Washington to get drunk on

power they didn’t want to call him King

in case that gave him ideas or his

successor ideas so they wanted to give

him the humblest meager most pathetic

title they could think of and that title

was president president they didn’t

invent the title I mean it existed

before but it just meant somebody who

presides over a meeting it was like the

the foreman of the jury and it didn’t

have much more grandeur than the term

foreman or overseer there were

occasional presidents of little colonial

councils and bits of government but it

was really a nothing title and that’s

why the Senate objected to it they said

that’s ridiculous you can’t call him

president this guy has to go and sign

treaties and meet foreign dignitaries

and who’s gonna take him seriously if

he’s got a silly little title like

President of the United States of

America and after three weeks of debate

in the end the Senate did not cave in

instead they agreed to use the title

president for now but they also wanted

it absolutely set down that they didn’t

agree with it from a decent respect for

the opinions and practice of civilized

nations whether under Vermont Republican

almond ARCIC all forms of government

whose custom it is to annex to the

office of the chief magistrate titles of

respectability not bloody president and

that in the intercourse with foreign

nations the majesty of the people of the

United States may not be hazarded by an

appearance of singularity ie we don’t

want to look like bloody widows they can

learn three interesting things from this

first of all and this is my favorite is

that so far as I’ve ever been able to

find out the Senate has never formally

endorsed the title of President Barack

Obama President Obama’s there on

borrowed time just waiting for the

Senate to spring into action second

thing you can learn is that when a

government says that this is a temporary

measure you can still be waiting 223

years later but the third thing you can

learn and this is the really important

one it’s the point I want to leave your

is that the title president of the

United States of America doesn’t sound

that humble at all these days does it

something to do with these slightly over

5,000 nuclear warheads he has is at his

disposal and the largest economy in the

world and a fleet of drones and all that

sort of stuff

reality and history have endowed that

title with grandeur and so the Senate

won in the end they got their title of

respectability and also the Senate’s

other worry the appearance of

singularity well it was a singularity

back then but now do you know how many

nations have a president a hundred and

forty-seven all because they want to

sound like the guy who’s got the five

thousand nuclear warheads etc and so in

the end the Senate won and the House of

Representatives lost because nobody’s

going to feel that humble when they’re

told that they are now the president of

the United States of America and that’s

the important lesson I think you can

take away and the one I want to leave

you with politicians try to pick words

and use words to shape reality and

control reality but in fact reality

changes words far more than words can

ever change reality thank you very much

you