Labour MP debuts fondleslab-assisted Parliament oratory

Labour MP and doyenne of all things digital Kerry McCarthy inadvertently made history Monday evening by becoming the first British politician to read a speech from an iPad in Parliament. "I did have a printed version, but was called so late I started playing around with speech on iPad so read it from there," McCarthy told the …

[Elmer Phud]

I know it's not Friday yet but . . .

"fondleslabian"

and

"Members should be allowed to use electronic hand-held devices for any purpose when in the chamber whilst not speaking"

childish, purile,infantile -- yup 'Fnar, fnar'

[David 45]

This modern age, young man!

Some members of Parliament need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century! Some judges too, come to think of it (although we are, of course, excluding the very wonderful Judge Birss from this criticism)

[Anonymous Coward]

Dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century

The 20th would be good start!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wonderful!

Never mind the fact that the country X billions down the toilet, services being cut and jobs being lost, let's heap praise on our governers for using tech for what it was designed for!

Oi, MPs! Get some sodding work done and get the country back on its feet, stop pandering the technorarti!!

[Steve X]

fondleslabian

Which I read as "fondles labian".

I knew that these debates were boring, but, really....

[Oliver Mayes]

also

It's an anagram of 'a fond lesbian'.

Sorry, it's a slow day.

[Efros]

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

'a fond lesbian'

Sounds like a line from a Burns poem

'Ae fond lesbian,

and then we sever;

Ae fareweel, alas, for ever'

[Anonymous Coward]

extra 'l'

Your anagram is short an 'l'. Maybe she's a Welsh llesbian ?

[Oliver Mayes]

re: extra l

Sorry, I obviously meant "la fond lesbian".

Italian for 'The Bottom Lesbian'

[Peter Clarke 1]

Hansard

The post I saw mentioned she was having difficulty getting a copy to Hansard. I don't own (or want to own) a pad so I've no idea if it should be easy to print or send electronically.

[umacf24]

I hope she didn't read it

It should have been just notes.

Backbenchers reading speeches is so wet -- it's like they're saying they don't really care and are only going through the motions.

[The BigYin]

iPad?

I thought that government advice was to use non-proprietary/open products? Seems like they can't follow their own rules.

Again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me...

... or is it ironic that it's the traditional poor working class Labour who have all the gadgets, and not the rich Tories ???

[Neil 23]

Well

The Tories have servants for that kind of thing...

[Gotno iShit Wantno iShit]

poor working class Labour

No such thing in the house of commons. Almost all of our MPs come from very, very comfortable backgrounds regardless of the colour of their tie. There are roughly as many commoners in the house of commons these days as there are snowballs in hell.

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor, working class?

Did you miss nu labour or something??

[Anonymous Coward]

Bless!

No doubt it and its contract paid for through expenses.

[Markie Dussard]

Of course

My company pays for the laptop upon which I work for them, so that seems fairly reasonable to me.

Not ALL expenses are axiomatically fraudulent or inappropriate.

[Anonymous Coward]

not all

but 99% are!

[Connor]

Yes...

But the question is, does she need it for her job? I'm sure that your company doesn't pay for the best possible laptop, the latest, nor every other little trinket that would possibly make your job easier, were money not an issue. Why should we? If pen and paper will suffice, in these austere times, then pen and paper should do.

It is inappropriate and unnecessary - if it really makes her life easier, I am sure she'd have splashed out one tenth of her monthly wage on one herself. If not, then clearly it is just a toy.

[Pen-y-gors]

reading?

I always thought one of the arcane rules of the Commons was that Hon. Ladies and Gents were required to speak without reading a prepared speech - in other words in their own words rather than that of a speech-writer - although referring to brief notes was allowed.

[Chris Miller]

Indeed

And if the opposition (on either side) think they've spotted this, the cry goes up of 'READING!'

Puerile, I know, but quite fun.

[My Alter Ego]

She might really need it

The advantage of using an iPad is that while it displays her notes (or more likely the entire speech), it can also provide important information such as "breath in, breath out", and "blink occasionally"

[Will Godfrey]

Not Impressed

Nor, I suspect, are all the people now out of work who can barely afford their children's clothes thanks to governments obsession with techie toys rather than actually sorting out uk.plc

[Gotno iShit Wantno iShit]

@Will Godfrey

You seem to be a little behind the news. The mob obsessed with spunking billions on databases, networks, ID Cards and countless other technological white elephants mostly aimed at monitoring the electorate got shown the door last year. You are correct tho, the Can't Count Crew remain just as technology obsessed and are doing sod all to help fix the mess they created. It's just that they are the opposition now not the govenment.

[Anonymous Coward]

Next thing

Green benches with nothing but iPads, Text-to-Speech activated, while their owners are in the commons bar.

[Richard Porter]

Does that make McCarthy an...

iMP ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Waste of my money

Why did she have to read fro a hideously expensive idevice, when cheaper models are available that do the same and more?

Status, thats why. The ill-conceived idea that is perpetuated by the media that owning an idevice makes you something "better" than the norm.

I makes you a twat! And an even bigger twat to waste pubic monies on crap like that.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Waste of my money

Pubic twattery.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Hideously expensive idevice?

Nah! iPads are passe

If she really wanted one-up(wo)manship, she would have whipped out an iPad2....

[Stuart Elliott]

Public money

Who says it's public money (let alone PUBIC money) that was used to purchase the iPad?

And who are you to make people a twat? IIt it contagious or something?

Moron.

[Mike123456]

How long before?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8298430/Silvio-Berlusconi-MP-caught-looking-at-escort-website-during-debate.html

Or, a slightly more sensationalist version here

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/854513-italian-politician-caught-looking-at-escort-website-on-ipad-in-parliament

[Geoff Mackenzie]

"might make the House appear out of touch with modern life"

Never! Being able to afford an iPad is a sign of being out of touch with modern life, in my impoverished opinion.

Posted from my EEE 900.

[Blubster]

No such apology will be needed for Monday night's momentous iPadification

Just an apology for wasting tax-payers money in expenses claims.

They'll all be at it soon - you won't be able to shit for iPads in the HoC.