Upick Opik? Not if you’re Hansard

By Stephen Tall | Tue 27th October 2009 - 7:25 pm

You’d have thought he’d be famous enough by now, but apparently not … The Independent reports:

Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik will complain to the Commons authorities today after his name was missed off a key internet search tool. The online of version of Hansard, which records everything said in Parliament, has a “search by Member” page – but Mr Opik’s name is not on the alphabetical list. It means his Montgomeryshire constituents cannot simply click through to find his written and spoken contributions.

When told of the error Mr Opik said: “I’m both appalled and amazed by this and will bring it to the attention of the House authorities.”

Lembit’s pleas must have had the desired effect, because when I checked Hansard just now, he’d been restored to his rightful place, happily sandwiched between Sandra Osborne and Bill Olner.

Lembit himself came up with the most plausible cause of his omission:

The 44-year-old, who is of Estonian descent, speculated the umlaut over the ‘o’ of his surname could be to blame, after it once appeared to cause a Government defeat according to online records. “The computer thought the umlaut was the last letter in the alphabet and removed everyone else’s names,” he said.

3 Comments

Richard 27th Oct '09 - 8:57pm

I’ve no idea why the Lib Dems put up with him, the man is a joke.
Lost LibDem 27th Oct '09 - 9:57pm

Maybe it would be better if we still could not find his “written and spoken contributions”!

We can always find his utterances in the Daily Sport,
Herbert Brown 27th Oct '09 - 11:12pm

Considering Ros Scott’s performance, I’d have thought Lembit’s detractors would have been showing a tad more humility. But it appears not …