One man’s piss is another man’s poison

Among Colin Porter’s pledges as incoming Design Business Association chairman is a promise to cut the swearing from DBA public parlance. Could it be that our Colin is still smarting from our report of his expletives after his inaugural speech (DW Diary, 10 October)?

But he should have known better than to come clean in front of DBA Design Effectiveness Awards presenter Angus Deayton at the thrash last week. Urged by the organisers to smarten up his patter during dinner for the second half, Deayton opted to share the BBC’s policy on four-letter nasties with DBA guests.

Did you know you can admit on air to being pissed as a newt, as it pisses down with rain. What you can’t do is use the word piss as verb or noun in any context to do with urination. Do they have a dictionary at Portland Place?