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The
Foot in Mouth award is awarded each year by the British Plain
English Campaign for "a baffling quote by a public figure".
Winners: |
2007: The former
England football manager, Steve McClaren, for the following comment
he made to Radio 5 Live:
He (Wayne Rooney)
is inexperienced, but he's experienced in terms of what he's been
through.
2006: Naomi Campbell
for:
I love England,
especially the food. There's nothing I like more than a lovely bowl
of pasta.
2005: Rhodri Morgan won his second award for this comment on
police:
The
only thing which isn’t up for grabs is no change and I think it’s
fair to say it’s all to play for, except for no change.
2004: Boris Johnson, who said on the TV programme Have I Got
News For You:
I could not
fail to disagree with you less.
2003: United States Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld who
said at a press conference:
Reports
that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to
me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we
know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say
we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also
unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.
2002: Actor Richard Gere, who said:
I know
who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and
somebody said I was a snake, I'd think 'No, actually I am a
giraffe.'
2001: Artist Tracey Emin, who explained:
When it
comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in
terms of art - and it's my words that actually make my art quite
unique.
2000: Hollywood star Alicia Silverstone for her comments, quoted
in the Sunday Telegraph:
I think
that [the film] Clueless was very deep. I think it was deep
in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come
from a very deep place if it's true lightness.
1999: Former England manager Glenn Hoddle. When asked by
interviewer Trevor McDonald to explain his controversial comments on
people with disabilities, he said:
I do
not believe that. At this moment in time, if that changes in years
to come I don't know, but what happens here today and changes as we
go along that is part of life's learning and part of your inner
beliefs. But at this moment in time I did not say them things and at
the end of the day I want to put that on record because it has hurt
people.
1998: Cardiff MP Rhodri Morgan. In an interview with BBC
Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman he was asked if he would like to be the
Labour leader of the new Welsh Assembly. Morgan replied:
"Does a
one-legged duck swim in circles?"
After a
long puzzled pause Paxman asked Morgan if that was Welsh for yes.
1997: Nick Underwood of Teletubbies Marketing explained that:
in
life, there are all colours and the Teletubbies are a reflection of
that. There are no nationalities in the Teletubbies - they are
techno-babies, but they are supposed to reflect life in that sense.
1994: Gordon Brown, MP for his 'New Economics' speech. He
covered:
ideas
which stress the growing importance of international co-operation
and new theories of economic sovereignty across a wide range of
areas, macro-economics, trade, the environment, the growth of post
neo-classical endogenous growth theory and the symbiotic
relationships between government and investment in people and
infrastructures - a new understanding of how labour markets really
work and constructive debate over the meaning and implications of
competitiveness at the level of individuals, the firm or the nation
and the role of government in fashioning modern industrial policies
which focus on nurturing competitiveness.
1993: Former England cricket boss, Ted Dexter, who desperately
tried to explain away another England defeat at the hands of the
Australians by saying:
Maybe
we are in the wrong sign. Maybe Venus is in the wrong juxtaposition
with something else. I don't know.
1991: No award, but special mention for United States Vice
President Dan Quayle:
We offer the
party as a big tent. How we do that (recognise the big tent
philosophy) with the platform, the preamble to the platform or
whatnot, that remains to be seen. But that message will have to be
articulated with great clarity.
