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