Winston Churchill was well known for his quick wit and cutting insults. He said of the French stuffed shirt Charles de Gaulle that he looked like a “female llama who has been surprised in the bath.” One Churchillian insult that was likely said, not by Churchill, but rather by another English Lord named E.F. Smith goes something like this:
Lady Aster quipped that if she was married to him to put poison in his tea.
“Madam, if I were married to you, I’d drink it.”
If Churchill or Smith offered such insults today, London bobbies might come calling.
In England and Wales, the Public Order Act of 1986 made “insulting words or behavior” illegal. An Oxford man called a police horse “gay” and the copper on the horse’s back arrested the insulter. Today, you can call a horse a “homo.” Being gay is no longer considered an insult.
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