Bottle

Conservative MP Robert Niell at PMQs:

Would he like to come and see the work that we are doing in Bromley? I could take him and show him one of our bottle banks.

Whether you believe, as Matthew Parris doesn’t, that Gordon Brown lost his “bottle” last week, it was interesting to see just how quickly the meme spread. It is a convenient piece of derogatory slang, so much better than the more conventional “coward” or “scared”. As soon as the Tories began using the phrase, Brown was cornered.