Upick Opik? Not if you’re Hansard

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.

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in Parliament.
Advert

3 Comments

  • 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 …

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Simon Banks
    Why are we on the other side from the Tories? Because they stand for every kind of inequality, the gutting of local government and a narrow nationalism. We stan...
  • expats
    Vince Cable....Gordon Brown introduced formal fiscal rules in 1997 alongside the operational independence of the Bank of England: essentially, a commitment to b...
  • Nonconformistradical
    @Tristan Ward Instead of posting such a long link may I recommend the use of https://tinyurl.com/ ? Which reduced your huge link to https://tinyurl.com/eejs...
  • Tristan Ward
    "‘why can’t social care and NHS spending be treated as ‘investment’’. Of course, that wont wash". It might wash if such spending can wash its face....
  • Tristan Ward
    @ Peter Wrigley "Most of us could live very comfortably even if the government did take, say another 5%-10% of our incomes to repair the public realm" I p...