Points of Order

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

No semi-colon was required. I was deploying a number of sentences to try to attend to the substance of colleagues’ inquiries, but I am always grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his observations, even when they are proffered in a disorderly manner from a sedentary position.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Richard Bacon, whom I congratulate warmly upon his choice of tie.

[Mr Bacon]

That is extremely kind of you, Mr Speaker. This is the tie of Anglia Farmers, one of the largest buying co-operatives in the agricultural sector in this country. I gave one to the last Prime Minister and the last Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the hope that they would wear one on the Treasury Bench, but they have not so far done so.

I was only going to ask whether the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Rob Marris) agreed with me that the semi-colon is a very fine thing and that it should be used more often.

[Mr Speaker]

I agree; the hon. Gentleman is an authority on the matter and on a number of other matters relating to language and syntax.