Tongue proves she’s not tied

Date: 26/09/1996

A European Parliament report compiled by British Labour Euro MP Carole Tongue on behalf of the committee on culture, youth, education and the media, appears to have set a dubious new record.

The report itself, on public service broadcasting, is a relatively compact affair, running to a modest 19 pages, and its fairly hefty number of recommendations - 51 in all if you include the obligatory instruction to the president to forward this resolution to the Commission, etc. etc. - has been surpassed before.

No, the record lies in the preamble, in which the word 'whereas' appears at the start of 27 paragraphs before we get to the recommendations.

This, you will have worked out, is one more 'whereas' than there are letters in the alphabet, which makes life a bit tricky if the house style is to work from A to Z.

The enterprising Ms Tongue, having reached Z, was not to be defeated. She pressed ahead with her last 'whereas' and labelled it Za.

We are presumably lucky that having overcome this obstacle, she did not go through the alphabet again.