Led a little astray
- 19 Feb 08, 08:50 AM
Having been led a little astray by a quote in Hansard is a useful reminder to me that the official record of House of Commons business is not a verbatim record of what MPs actually say.
MPs and their staff are able to inspect the words which the Parliamentary transcribers faithfully record and then to suggest "improvements". It is the job of Hansard editors to clarify the meaning of what an honourable member said whilst ensuring that no changes to the meaning are allowed to slip through.
A colleague reminded me of an old verse that captured the spirit of Hansard well:
And so while the great ones depart to their dinner,
The secretary stays, growing thinner and thinner
Racking his brain to record and report
What he thinks that they think that they ought to have thought.
It's been claimed (though never to my knowledge verified) that before being accepted as a Hansard scribe, applicants used to be forced to listen to one of John Prescott's speeches and to write down what they think he was trying to say.
Clearly, in the case of Alistair Darling's quote, the Hansard scribe thought that the chancellor was agreeing with a backbencher attacking nationalisation and no-one in Darling's office objected. Perhaps because that was the impression he wanted to convey, albeit not what he actually said.
The online revolution may protect us in future since the uncleaned up version is now published on the day of debates on the before being replaced by the cleaned up official version the following morning.
