VIDEO: David Cameron shocks radio listeners with Twitter 'twat' joke
David Cameron shocked radio listeners today with the word "twat" - but claimed it wasn't a swear word.
The Tory leader turned the airwaves blue with a joke about the social website Twitter. "The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it - too many twits might make a twat," he said.
He also used the phrase "pissed off", for which he quickly apologised.
Asked about the Commons expenses scandals, he said: "The public are rightly, I think, pissed off - sorry I can't say that in the morning - angry with politicians."
Eton-educated Mr Cameron is renowned for having impeccable manners though he does swear in private. But interviewed on Absolute Radio, which has a youth audience, he dropped his guard. In the studio the Tory leader's Twitter joke was a hit that produced gusts of laughter. Host Christian O'Connell exclaimed: "Brilliantly put, I think that's fantastic."
Mr Cameron had been asked if he was a user of the website, recently taken up by No 10, which sends short messages to followers.
Ironically, he said the reason he did not was the need to avoid gaffes: "Politicians have to think about what we say."
Earlier he revealed that his wife Samantha was a listener to the station and joked that he would have to be careful not to make mistakes.
At first a Tory spokesman said, inaccurately, that "twat" was not classed as a swear word under radio guidelines. Mr Cameron's spokeswoman then made a full apology and said the T-word had been a mistake.
"David Cameron does not condone the use of bad language," she said. "It was a genuine slip up and he meant no offence." A Tory source suggested Mr Cameron did not realise that the word is usually considered highly offensive, particularly to women. "I think it is a generational thing," said the source.
Some Tory MPs were unimpressed. One compared his bad language to Tony Blair adopting estuary English and dropping glottal stops on TV "to boost his street cred".
Radio presenter O'Connell praised Mr Cameron for "trying to engage people about politics" and said the overwhelming reaction from listeners had been positive.
Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom said studies had shown that "twat" was considered "offensive language" by the public but it was not classed with the "most offensive" words.
Truly an olde English insult
As an expletive, "twat" has become so misunderstood that many — clearly including David Cameron — may be unaware of its rather more vulgar origins.
Possibly originating from an old Norse word for a cut, or forest clearing, it is primarily a vulgar synonym for a vulva or vagina. It is one of the oldest swearwords in the English language. Tony Thorne, an expert on slang and swearing, said Mr Cameron may have confused the word with the more innocuous "twit".
He added: "Twat is quite a harsh, dismissive word which still packs a punch as an insult, particularly in the North. Many wrongly think it relates to twit, which derives from a Middle-English word denoting someone who deserves to be mocked or teased. Cameron probably didn't realise the leap he was making." Mr Thorne said "twatted" was used by young people to denote being drunk. The word is a modern insult in the phrase "Shoreditch Twat", describing a fashionable young person in that part of east London, as epitomised by the Channel 4 comedy series Nathan Barley.
