numptorium

n. the building used by the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, or by extension, the parliament itself. Subjects: English, Scotland, Politics

Etymological Note: Scots numpty ‘a stupid person’ + Latin -orium ‘a building or place where an activity occurs or a (type of) thing is located.’

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Citations: 2004 Scotsman (Scotland) (Oct. 18) “Hickey; Hickey” p. 17: A prize of a year’s supply of the full proceedings of the Scottish Parliament is on offer for the best term for the Holyrood Reichstag. So far, I can reveal two short-listed terms “Auld Drearie” and “The Numptorium”. My old chum, Sir Taggart Kilbirnie of that Ilk, suggests that the latter would make the present regime a “Numptocracy”! 2004 Jason Allardyce Sunday Times (U.K.) (Nov. 7) “Holyrood ‘numpties are worse than Cuba’” p. 13: A leading British economist has dismissed the Scottish parliament as a glorified town hall that promotes policies which are more zealously socialist than those of the hardline communist government of Cuba.John Blundell, director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, says that Holyrood is a “numptorium” that should be converted into a museum. 2005 George Kerevan Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland) (Jan. 1) “Word of the week”: My nomination for new word of 2004 goes to “numptorium,” coined by our own Peter Clarke, and meaning “a political assembly or parliament building staffed by politicians of a low average IQ, or possessed of venal interests.”

Posted 3 Jan 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

What an irony that all the sources for this phrase should be genuine “numpties”! Hickey is a anonymous and possibly fictitious columnist, specialising in “sweaty sock” type hatred of the Scots. Jason Allardyce’s loathing for local democratic control extends to having published a map showing the best place to launch mortars at the Parliament, and George Kerevan is a self-loathing former nationalist who now pens Thatcherite hymns to business-at-all cost politics for the peculiarly anti-Scottish newspaper “The Scotsman”. There’s an unholy alliance between rabid right-wing press barons and rabid independence-or-nothing nationalists in Scotland, neither of whom ever wanted a Parliament. The only things they have in common is a hatred of democracy and an extraodinary access to the media. True numpties. (note: this is not a defence of the current Lib/Lab administration, merely the process of local political control)

by Neil Grant 22 Oct 05, 0120 GMT