If you wondered what happened, I got busy working the end of last year, and mixed with a convenient dose of laziness once I flew to Oman, failed to post the list for these two months. I've also decided to lump January's with February, so expect them early March.

01. Vitreous toilet
02. Be quids in
03. Ringpiece
04. Trumping
05. Neophyte
06. Cinque ports
07. Fanuary
08. Counting sheep
09. Shop-soiled
10. Breach of promise
11. Twat tax
12. Prevaricator
13. Autre temps, autre moeurs
14. Tikkun olam
15. Putting on the Ritz
16. Freemium
17. Verisimilitude
18. In clover
19. Docker's thumbs
20. Silly season
21. NEET
22. Laga kitnabhi payega dhokha
23. Busman's holiday
24. (Old) crumblies
25. Last Train to Clarksville
26. Prolixity
27. What the Dickens?
28. Rooting
29. Glenda Slagg
30. Aperçus
31. Bromide
32. Wednesday witches
33. Jugaad
34. Tendentious
35. Digital inheritance
36. Ostler
37. Athenaeum
38. Lazyweb
39. Po-faced
40. Pen pusher

Only the last three words are from December. As usual there's a handful of non-English entrants: including French (13) & (30), Hebrew (14), Hindi (22) & (33) & Latin (37), but not (6) which hails from Norman French and is actually pronounced "Sink ports".

[Poll #1817758]

01. Gooser
02. Elide
03. Be jolly hockey sticks
04. Screed (publication)
05. Blithe
06. Juju
07. Clammy
08. Catch yourself on
09. Having a mare
10. Waspish
11. Roil
12. Patsies
13. Solipsism
14. Mirthful
15. Al Sha’ab yureed eskaat al nazam
16. Flo Pass
17. All people that on earth do dwell
18. Dilettantes
19. West-Brit
20. Gorked
21. Rort
22. Snuff film
23. Spacker
24. Road to Damascus
25. Dog-eat-dog world
26. Troga
27. Mob Wife
28. Index offence
29. Faint heart never won fair lady
30. Hold the torch
31. Farthingale
32. Ho-de-ho
33. Moaning Minnie
34. Trustafarian
35. Soigné habitué
36. Segueing

One word more than last month but there now seems to be a degree of consistency developing in the number of words and phrases for each month. Arabic (15) becomes the fifth language to make an appearance in these posts, while there are no surprises with the inclusion of at least one (or maybe two) French words (6) & (35). I say maybe because according to Wikipedia, (6) is either of West African or French origin. Irish English makes an entry with two phrases (8) & (19), while we have another visitor from Down Under (21) courtesy pappubahry. Not to be left behind, pop culture in the form of US TV comedy programme, Modern Family has donated two words/phrases in (26) & (27), while football (the sport) chips in with (16).

[Poll #1783828]

01. Social gadfly
02. Republican in Name Only (RINO)
03. Truculent
04. Trenchant
05. Pusillanimous
06. On the Q.T.
07. Bean counter
08. Leguminosae
09. Separate the wheat from the chaff
10. NIBMY(ism)
11. Obsequious
12. Pinch and punch for the first of the month
13. Courant
14. Succour
15. Milk round
16. Chatham House Rule
17. Take a haircut
18. InterCity 125
19. Lack of spoons
20. Flâneur
21. Kike
22. Gert lush
23. Alacrity
24. Mellifluous
25. Maelstrom
26. Waggish
27. Winsome
28. Lithe
29. Bunny boiler
30. Per diem
31. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
32. Clothesline
33. Bang to rights
34. Quisling
35. Febrile
36. Vestibule
37. Mendicant
38. Old Buffer

Last month's list has several more words than even May's record-breaking compilation. And we've got quite a mixed bag with an English word that's spelt exactly as its French derivation (20), two Latin terms (8) and (30), an acronym derived word (10), a few phrases including (9), (12), (17), my first Shakespearean quote (31) and a few regionalisms such as (2), (18) and (22). Five months of these posts and a total of 108 words/phrases.

[Poll #1766661]

01. Ebullient
02. Disquieting
03. Reave
04. Inchoate
05. Stramash
06. Stolid
07. Like turkeys voting for Christmas
08. Boffin
09. Anorak (slang)
10. Qui est très drôle
11. Dog's dinner
12. In rude health
13. Chupame los huevos

Not as many in the list this month due to my travels in America but for the first time I've included foreign languages into the mix with a phrase each from French (10) and Spanish (13). Interestingly, (5) is a Scottish word.

[Poll #1748691]* There is an error in the poll choices. 11-13 should read 11-12.

[Poll #1706046]

The British government has (grudgingly) decided/been forced to end a 140 year-old ban on voting rights for prisoners, following a 2004 decision by the European Court of Human Rights which ruled that the blanket ban was discriminatory and breached the European Convention on Human Rights. Under the Forfeiture Act 1870, prisoners sentenced for felonies were denied the right to vote and this ban was retained in the Representation of the People Act 1983. Prisoners on remand, fine defaulters and those imprisoned for contempt of court can still vote. In addition, the Court allowed individual governments to decide which offences should carry restrictions on voting rights.

For several months, the government's lawyers tried to find a way to avoid enfranchising a potential 70,000 British inmates. But after exhausting every potential avenue the government realised lifting the ban was the only viable option, else taxpayers faced paying huge sums (upto £50 million possibly) in compensation from prisoner claims, and potential legal action from the EU. Most other European nations allow some prisoners voting rights. And despite two separate public consultations, the previous Labour government failed to implement any changes. The news has polarised the country with Tory and Labour supporters upset, though many acknowledge the government had no choice, while many Lib Dems are happy because they campaigned for the law to change. I too wanted the change. But what do you think?

[Poll #1639898]

[Poll #1577142]

[Poll #1428547]

Law in Action is back for a new series on BBC Radio 4. In the first episode, Clive Coleman investigates the issues surrounding the age of criminal responsibility. Unlike most European countries, the age at which a child in the United Kingdom can be prosecuted and convicted of a criminal offence is significantly lower. It's 8 in Scotland and 10 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Compare that with 14 in Germany, 15 in Scandinavia, 16 in Portugal & Spain, 17 in France and 18 in Belgium. Elsewhere it's 10 in Australia, 12 in Canada and 14 in New Zealand. In the US it varies. It's 6 in North Carolina, 7 in most states and 10 for federal crimes.

Last year there were 11,000+ prosecutions in the 10-13 age group and 107,000 in the 14-17 age group in England & Wales.

[Poll #1417007]

[Poll #1335630]