The Spanish take a perverse pride in the belief that their politicians are the least gifted linguists beyond the barnyard, but few Dutch politicians are anything but adequate in the language of the money-laundering capital of the world - surely a sign of their honesty. This leads to Dunglish (more). For example, fokken is to breed (animals). An old joke which all educated foreigners in Holland are told at least once a week relates a conversation between Prime Minister Joseph Luns and John F. Kennedy:
JFK: So what do you do for a hobby?
JL: I fok horses.
JFK: Pardon?
JL: Yes, paarden (horses).
Which brings us neatly back to the new joke about the leaders of both the UK's major parties having been accused in the past week of having fucked a pig.
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A friend who has had the pleasure (not Jess Phillips, leader of the Labour Party in 2016 and election-winner in 2025) tells me that Diane Abbott is a Weeble: knock her down and she gets up looking smug:
Appropriately there is a mistranslation right at the beginning of the Dunglish article: steenkool is coal; houtskool is charcoal.
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