Here's a headline on the BBC News website:
Tirade against 'damp rag' EU president shocks MEPs
You might not be too surprised to learn that it relates to UKIP, specifically an intervention by the glorious Nigel Farage http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8535121.stm.
'Tirade' is an interesting choice of word, isn't it? The BBC writer hasn't put it in inverted commas. Is it a quote from an MEP? It doesn't seem to be. No, it looks as if the BBC writer has chosen the word himself. It's a word that could be considered technically correct in the context but, like 'harangue' and 'diatribe', has connotations of excessive bitterness/irrationality. (Or is that only because it usually comes in tandem with words like 'drunken' or 'wild'?)
The BBC website features a mere 45 seconds of Mr Farage's 'tirade'. Hopefully the full 7 minutes will pop up on YouTube soon!
Oh dear, so Mr Farage described the EU non-entity Van whoever as having the charisma of a damp rag, and that is a "tirade" in BBC speak.
ReplyDeleteBut when the late, unlamented labour MP, Tony Banks opined that a Conservative MP looked like a "pig's bladder on a stick" oh my how the BBC rolled around on the floor in hysterical laughter.
There are times that I realy despise the BBC and everything it purports to stand for.
Andy C
And Tony Banks' description of William Hague as a "foetus". That had us rolling in the aisles, especially women who have suffered a miscarriage.
ReplyDeleteCraig, the full tirade is on Youtube now and is quite magnificent !