A HEALTHY LAPSUS LINGUAE may often turn out to have some profound hidden meaning which reveals that the speaker was really thinking about something else at the time of allowing the slip to out. Or on occasion it may set a generous mind into action to try to discover what might be the true meaning of the mistake when applied ‘deliberately’ as if it were not a lapse but a true statement. Thus I was intrigued when I was watching Anna Jones on Sky News recently talking about our good Prime Minister’s plans to apply a hefty increase to students’ tuition fees as from next year.
THE INTERESTING ASPECT ABOUT this entirely predictable announcement by the Conservative Party is the question of how this will be received by the Liberal Democrat members of the coalition government, given that in the election campaign Nick “Deputy Headmaster” Clegg had promised that his party would abolish university tuition fees entirely.
AWARE OF THIS PROBLEMATIC SITUATION, but living in a TV world in which one cannot spend ten minutes without news about England football team and its role in the World Cup, Anna Jones commented “Well I wonder how this Conservative policy will go down with Liberal Democrat fans…” She immediately corrected herself, and perhaps did not even notice the mistake, but at this time of both football and political craziness I began to imagine that the word “fans” might indeed be the appropriate term for those who follow our political parties in earnest.
A GOOD ENGLAND FOOTBALL FAN only really gets involved in activities proper about every four years, as is the case at the moment, in South Africa. Generally the fan is hopeful-ish about victory, but does not really harbour any illusions. The best one hopes for is the third and fourth place play-off. But it is a good opportunity to do a bit of shouting, spend a bit of money and, as is sometimes said, “put oneself about a bit”. One can wear the team colours, preach about the virtues of the “side”, clap and cheer and then go back home again, perhaps after a little drink or two, or perhaps more, and wait for the next tournament in four years time. Now what has that got to do with Liberal Democrat fans?
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