Stephen Tall

Upick Opik? Not if you’re Hansard

By | 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.

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

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 …

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.

If you are a member of the party, you can have the Lib Dem Logo appear next to your comments to show this. You must be registered for our forum and can then login on this public site with the same username and password.

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

  • User AvatarRoss McLean 19th Oct - 2:10am
    Yep. This is excellent. Well done Daisy. I hope Norman Lamb reads it. Norman is being reported in the Guardian to be considering voting for...
  • User AvatarRoland 18th Oct - 11:46pm
    @frankie Norway+ is not on offer, at best it is Canada- and if the ERG get their way it is WTO. Actually, if the ERG...
  • User Avatarfrankie 18th Oct - 10:50pm
    I'm afraid John there are too many frightened Labour MP's along with some very mad ones, that coupled with Jeremey tacit support is likely to...
  • User AvatarJohn Marriott 18th Oct - 10:38pm
    @frankie Who says that Norway Plus is “not on offer”? Who knows what might happen if the deal fails tomorrow? It’s all up for grabs....
  • User Avatarfrankie 18th Oct - 10:05pm
    If anyone is interested in keeping up with events in Syria may I recommend https://mobile.twitter.com/desyracuse Agathocle deSyracuse @deSyracuse Historian, Conflict analyst, #Map maker, #MiddleEast, #Syria....
  • User Avatarfrankie 18th Oct - 9:50pm
    There isn't anything special about people John that means they can or cannot handle democracy. We tend to think we are special because we live...