The Foot in Mouth Award is presented each year by the Plain English Campaign for "a baffling comment by a public figure". The award was first made in 1993, when it was given to Ted Dexter, the chairman of selectors for the England cricket team. It was awarded again the following year, and after a two year break, annually from 1997.
The Plain English Campaign was set up in 1979 when the founder, Chrissie Maher, shredded hundreds of jargon-filled forms and documents in Parliament Square, London. The group made their first awards the next year, rewarding those organisations that used plain English, and highlighting those that did not. Although the Foot in Mouth award was first made in 1993, a specific acknowledgment was made to a comment by Dan Quayle, Vice President of the United States in 1991.
The award has been presented 17 times, and only Rhodri Morgan has received it more than once. The Welsh politician won in both 1998 and 2005, and made a light-hearted response to his second win, claiming that the first award had "made name." Politicians have been recipients of the award more times than any other group of people, collecting it on eight occasions; people from the world of sport have won four times. The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush received the award in 2008, with the subtitle "Lifetime Achievement Award", given not for a single quote, but for his continued "services to gobbledygook".
Read more about Foot In Mouth Award: Winners
Famous quotes containing the words foot in, foot, mouth and/or award:
“Whist Partner: Great Caesar’s Ghost. A woman! In the Club.
Phileas Fogg: My dear, I must ask you to leave these precincts at once. No woman has ever set foot in the Club.
Aouda: Why not?
Phileas Fogg: Because that could spell the end of the British Empire.”
—James Poe (1921–1980)
“It is not necessary that every time he rises he should give his famous imitation of a semi-house-trained polecat.”
—Michael Foot (b. 1913)
“Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 23:3-7.
Job, of God.
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)