Daily New
Northern Ireland Assembly members should avoid calling each other "bigot", "banshee", "plonkers" and "dopey", the Stormont speaker has said. Edwin Poots issued the warning after the terms were used by members during tetchy exchanges in the assembly chamber in recent weeks. He urged members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) to be "mindful of standards of courtesy and good temper and moderation and respect".
The speaker made the remarks amid political tensions flaring between Stormont parties over the Drumcree parading dispute. In September, members of the Assembly received an official reprimand over the "aggressive tone and language" of recent debates. Poots acknowledged it "might be inevitable that exchanges may be more heated than normal" but encouraged MLAs to show "some restraint".
Speaking at the beginning of Monday's assembly session, the DUP MLA said members should avoid "deliberately seeking to inflame tensions outside of the chamber". Poots told MLAs that "issues are what they should focus on, rather than personal attacks". Poots said he had written to some MLAs "in relation to individual exchanges in the assembly in recent weeks".
"I have written to a number of individuals about the use of a number of terms over the last number of weeks, where members referred to other members including 'bigot', 'banshee', 'plonkers' and 'dopey'." "In other circumstances the chair might consider that some of these instances were intended to be light-hearted, but that is not the context we are in at the moment," he added. "The longstanding rules and conventions of the assembly are clear that members should refer to each other and their parties by using proper names."
Source: BBC
