Stephen Tall

WTF? Lib Dem MP Stephen Gilbert stands up for use of youth argot

By | Wed 6th April 2011 - 9:15 pm

You will all be thinking about leaving school in a few weeks and must be thinking ‘WTF’ about going to university.

So said Stephen Gilbert, Lib Dem MP for St Austell and Newquay, when addressing an assembly of 200 Year 11 students at a local community college, prompting a local Tory councillor to complain to the school, accusing Mr Gilbert of being “out of touch”.

Headteacher David Parker is more forgiving: “I was there at the time and I know people have picked up on something that was said during the talk. Perhaps if he had thought about it before he said it he wouldn’t have used that phrase but maybe it was a slip of the tongue. If he had asked me before whether that was an appropriate term to use I would have said probably not. I am hoping not to dwell on the incident too much as the rest of the MP’s speech was very eloquent and engaging.”

As for Stephen, he’s unrepentant:

All I have to say in reply to this is OMG. From my perspective this is a nonsense political attack and is a bit petty. It was nothing more than a throwaway remark and I clearly wouldn’t have stood in front of a group of 16-year-olds and sworn. I don’t have a career suicide tendency.

Meeting constituents is a part of this job which I treasure the most. Needless to say, no offence was intended in my comments. I was simply communicating with a group of students in a language which they understand.

Sounds like a SIATC* to the Voice.

* Storm in a tea cup. As the young people say all the time.

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4 Comments

  • Steve Way 6th Apr '11 - 10:22pm

    Couldn’t agree more, what a joke the Tory is. If the most the he can do is to pick up the use of WTF he’d better stay away from teenagers. It sometimes takes me a few minutes to work out what my 19 year means in a text !!!! A note of caution though, there is a danger of a William Hague baseball cap moment if it is over used by older people.

    I am not sure about SIATC though…………………..

  • Ian James 6th Apr '11 - 10:33pm

    its not a storm in a tea cup its a playground squabble.

    so our MP’s are human, im certain every single one of the pupils had heard far worse in their lives so sorry where is the story?

  • Shauny 7th Apr '11 - 9:36am

    OMG! ROTFL – IMO & FWIW what’s wrong with him connecting in a way they understand – surely one of the issues that comes back time and time again, is that young people feel alienated by politics, defo as u put it a SIATC 😉

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