Hansard (pronounced han-sard)
(1) The
official verbatim published reports of the debates and proceedings in the
British Parliament. Separate editions
are published for both the House of Commons and House of Lords.
(2) A
similar report kept by other legislative bodies in other countries, most of
which trace their political systems back to colonial origins in the British
Empire.
1812: Named
after Thomas Curson Hansard, a London printer and publisher, who became
the first official printer to the parliament at Westminster.
Prior
to 1771, the British parliament was a secretive body, there existed a published
official record of action but no record of debate, the publication of anything
said on the floor of either house actually a breach of Parliamentary privilege
and punishable by a court. However, as independent
newspapers became more numerous, many began publishing unofficial accounts. Parliament responded with fines, dismissal
and imprisonment. Some editors used the
device of styling their reports of debates as those of fictitious societies but
parliament continued to resist until 1771 when several judges declined to hear
the cases and a number of more far-sighted politicians began to understand how this
free publicity could be turned to advantage.
By then, it was not uncommon for speeches to be crafted for the effect
they would have when printed, rather than a pieces of oratory intended to
impress the house. The early newspapers,
the editors of some which encouraged (and sometimes printed, even if edited) “letter
to the editor”, were the slow-motion social medial of the age.
Eventually, editions of the parliamentary debates were
produced by printer Thomas Curson Hansard (1776-1833), issued under his name from
1812. These were periodicals which
circulated by subscription and, in another modern touch, Hansard didn’t employ stenographers
to take down notes, instead using a multiplicity of sources most of which were
the morning newspapers. Hansard was thus
the Google news feed of the day, an aggregator with the revenue model of
on-selling the work of others with no payment to the source. Google has of late been compelled to offer
its sources a few crumbs; Hansard never did.
The early editions of Hansard cannot absolutely be relied upon as a verbatim
record of what was said.
Not all interjections make it into Hansard but the unrecorded homophonous gem of an exchange in the Australian parliament between Sir Winton Turnbull (1899-1980) and Gough Whitlam (1916–2014; prime minister 1972-1975) deserved to:
Sir Winton Turnbull (Country Party, Mallee): "I’m a
country member and…"
Mr Gough Whitlam (ALP, Werriwa): "I
remember."
List of
assemblies which publish Hansards.
Parliament
of the United Kingdom and the UK's devolved institutions, Parliament of Canada
and the Canadian provincial and territorial legislatures, Parliament of
Australia and the Australian state and territory parliaments, Parliament of
South Africa and South Africa's provincial legislatures, Parliament of Barbados,
East African Legislative Assembly, Parliament of New Zealand, Legislative
Council of Hong Kong, Parliament of Malaysia, National Parliament of Papua New
Guinea, Parliament of Singapore, Legislative Council of Brunei, Parliament of
Sri Lanka, Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, National Assembly of Kenya, National
Assembly of Tanzania, Parliament of Ghana, Parliament of Uganda, Parliament of
Mauritius, Parliament of Jamaica, States of Jersey, States of Guernsey, Tynwald,
the Parliament of the Isle of Man, National Assembly of Nigeria, National
Assembly of Namibia, Parliament of Botswana, Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Lindsay Lohan and Harsard
Lindsay Lohan and the great "slagging off Kettering scandal".
Because her "lifestyle choices" in the early twenty-first century made her name a synecdoche for this and that, Lindsay Lohan has been mentioned in parliamentary proceedings in a number of jurisdictions. The best known came as one of the few amusing footnotes to the depressing business which was the Brexit referendum, the mechanism through which the UK withdrew from its membership of the European Union (EU), Ms Lohan helpfully keeping the world informed of the vote's progress via tweets on X (the known as Twitter). One tweet mentioned Kettering and the previously obscure Philip Hollobone (b 1964; Tory MP for Kettering since 2005), knew honor demanded he respond to the actor “slagging off” his constituency. The offending tweet caught the eye of the outraged MP on that evening in in 2016, after it was announced Kettering (in the Midlands county of Northamptonshire) had voted 61-39% to leave the EU; it read: “Sorry, but Kettering where are you?”
Philip Hollobone MP, official portrait (2020).
Mr Hollobone, a long-time "leaver" (a supporter of Brexit), wasn’t about to let a mean girl "remainer's" (one who opposed Brexit) slag of Kettering escape consequences and he took his opportunity in the House of Commons, saying: “On referendum night a week ago, the pro-Remain American actress, Lindsay Lohan, in a series of bizarre tweets, slagged off areas of this country that voted to leave the European Union. At one point she directed a fierce and offensive tweet at Kettering, claiming that she had never heard of it and implying that no one knew where it was. Apart from the fact that it might be the most average town in the country, everyone knows where Kettering is.” Whether a phrase like “London, Paris, New York, Kettering” was at the time quite as familiar to most as it must have been to Mr Hollobone isn’t clear but he did try to help by offering advice, inviting Miss Lohan to switch on Kettering's Christmas lights that year, saying it would “redeem her political reputation”. Unfortunately, that proved not possible because of a clash of appointments but thanks to the Tory Party, at least all know the bar has been lowered: Asking where a town sits on the map is now “slagging it off”. Learning that is an example of why we should all "read our daily Hansards", an observation Mr Whitlam apparently once made, suggesting his estimation of the reading habits of the general population might have differed from reality.
Screen grab from the "apology video" Lindsay Lohan sent the residents of Kettering advising she'd not be able to switch on their Christmas lights because of her "busy schedule".
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