That’s how John Bercow, the Conservative Member for Buckingham described members, (inc me) who want to reform the abortion law. He also used words such as prejudiced.
Antediluvian isn’t a word you hear much on the housing estates across Britain, so I had to ask what it meant. Before a flood apparently.
(Nadine then goes on to list her supporters, David Cameron, religion, 3/4 of women, the medical professional and over half of thecountries of Europe.)
What?
Nadine is right, y’know. You don’t hear antediluvian used much.
So what did John say, and what the buggery does it mean?
John Bercow (scroll down to near the bottom):
I am extremely grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and I entirely agree with her. It is a pity that the Bill is being used for that purpose although, to be fair, it is in parliamentary order. Does she agree that if people who want to reduce the upper time limit are determined to go ahead with their amendments, as they are perfectly privileged to do in parliamentary terms, those of us who favour a different modernisation and improvement of the law will take our opportunity, too? We can obtain a genuinely progressive reform, rather than the antediluvian reform that some favour.
Now, I had heard but not known what antediluvian means and in the context John used it, it doesn’t really mean anything so before I put finger to keyboard I looked it up.
And yes it does mean ‘[belonging to the time] before the [biblical] flood’, but I feel John Bercow had this other meaning in mind:
Oxford English Dictionary:
ridiculously old-fashioned.
Leave a Reply