This is interesting because I’d heard the word, but only in
connection with a song by the Mamas and Papas. I didn’t actually know what it
meant. Neither, it seems, did Boris Johnson (I read somewhere that he was confusing mugwump with oompa-loompa), so everybody is now laughing at him
as usual. When BBC Radio Derby asked the Prime Minister in an interview whether
she knew the meaning of mugwump, she
replied ‘I am conscious of the fact that the country needs strong and stable
leadership.’ (Well, we all know that rats are capable of slithering through
seemingly non-existent spaces, don’t we? I’ve seen them do it. Or maybe she
didn’t hear the question. Or maybe Radio Derby was unwittingly connected to a
recorded announcement.) Best of all, Word doesn’t have mugwump in its
dictionary, at least the UK
version doesn’t.
And that, it seems, is the point: mugwump is an American
word. So I looked it up.
I was informed that a mugwump is a person who remains aloof
and independent, especially from party politics. (Which doesn’t mean that a
mugwump can’t side with a Socialist if that Socialist is trying to make the
country a nicer and fairer place to live in.) As such, it appears that I’m a
mugwump, too.
So hooray for me and Jeremy. And thank you, Boris, for
entertaining us with the custard pie that missed.
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