THE WORD OF THE LORDS

It’s not often that the third longest word in the English language is spoken in Parliament.

But antidisestablishmentarianism is now Government policy. It means being against the Church of England separating from the state.

And Government spokesman Lord Young used it when peers debated the issue. They were told only 14 per cent of us now identify as Anglicans, while half the population has no religion.

Bishop of Worcester John Inge was unsurprisingly opposed to change, as was TV doctor Robert Winston, above. I am too, but more for constitutional and practical reasons than religious ones. The established church is a keystone of the monarchy. Pull it out and the Queen might go with it.

Many of England’s 12,600 churches are elderly like their congregations. And if the C of E didn’t maintain ancient buildings taxpayers must instead. a deep breath for two longer words. Floccinaucinihilipilification – estimating something as worthless – is second. Top of the mouthfuls is the lung disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. You have to fill your lungs to say it. Labour’s Laura Smith bowled an apparently easy question to Justice minister Lucy Frazer.

Laura asked for the number of taxi passengers convicted of doing runners without paying fares.

Lucy, above, confessed: “There’s no specific offence for taxi fare avoidance.”

You can be done under the Fraud Act or the Theft Act, but not a Hackney Carriage (Pay-up, Guv) Act. If I were you, Lucy, I’d travel by bus from now on.