Family's Fielding fluffs his fiscal
September 9th 2009 02:51
Mary Whitehouse: at least she could spell
Australian Senator Steve Fielding is apparently taking, as his yardstick for political performance, the career of former American vice-president Dan Quayle. Fielding is paying particular attention to Quayle's inability to spell.
The Australian is a member of the Family First Party, which is, in its own words, "the only party that has as its top priority the well being (sic) of Australian families and the success of small businesses". According to their web page, they also believe, "Australia should be the best country in the world".
So, to hell with everyone else and do you think the portrait of Mary Whitehouse would look better over the mantlepiece?
The noun well-being should, of course, be hyphenated or one word, not two, and this brings us back to Senator Fielding and his language flaws. He has had an ongoing problem, when offering opinions on economic matters, in confusing the words fiscal and physical. "Physical policy" has become something of a catchphrase for the good Senator, and good journalists are giving him every opportunity to repeat the malapropism.
This week, however, he went a step further along the Quayle trail. Dan famously couldn't spell potato. Fielding decided to mangle the word fiscal even more than he has by proving that, not only does he not know how to use it, he doesn't know how to spell it.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, he was asked about his regular mispronunciation of fiscal. "I'll make it quite clear," Senator Fielding replied, "fiscal: F-I-S-K-A-L."
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