John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, likes to pick up on members who ‘chunter from a sedentary position’ – a slightly politer, and perhaps archaic, way of saying ‘shut up and stop muttering’.
Here are some examples from the past few years. You can listen to the audio here:
Example 1
or- order we cannot have people chuntering from a sedentary position particularly when they have already spoken we have heard the honourable lady we know what she wanted to say and we are most grateful to her for that we don’t need sedentary chuntering it is not helpful and it is unseemly stop it (29/11/2018)
Example 2
the honourable gentleman’s sedentary chuntering would constitute a book in itself and it might sell rather well topical questions Emma Reynolds (29/01/2018)
Example 3
the honourable gentleman the member for Gainsborough is chuntering from a sedentary position to no obvious benefit or purpose for the simple reason that I have not the foggiest idea from this distance what he’s chuntering about (23/11/2017)
Example 4
well actually there are people on both sides chuntering from a sedentary position certainly not something I ever remember doing myself when I was on the back benches (28/02/2017)
Example 5
the honourable gentleman the member for Huddersfield is an extremely senior and cerebral member of the house keeps chuntering from a sedentary position about buried money just in case colleagues hadn’t heard what he was chuntering about but anyway it would be good if he ceased chuntering (13/10/2016)
House of Commons
28th September, 2019 at 11:57 am
How do you feel about the Banksy artwork with all the chimps in the house of commons. Feels sometimes like it is a bunch of chimps chuntering from a sedentary position.
28th September, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Forgot to say, nice post.