In addition

A tide of sleaze* is engulfing the nation this month. Just as it did in October 1994 and in November 1995. The monthly totals of appearances of the word "sleaze" in our newspaper database (covering a wide selection of national dailies and Sundays) since the beginning of 1994 reveals both the seasonal nature of sleaze and the high prospects of a record crop this autumn.

As the table shows, sleaze was acceptably contained until the tidal wave of arms-for-Iraq and cash-for-questions stories in late 1994. The level remained high, peaking again with the publication of the Nolan Report (May 1995) and the Commons debate on Nolan (November 1995).

After Nolan our appetite for sleaze appeared satiated and the figures for the early months of 1996 give the impression of a general sleaze moratorium. Indeed, the total number of sleaze appearances in the first nine months of the year was 63 per cent down on the same period in 1995. This month, however, the cease-sleaze has come to an end. With 249 instances in the first 16 days of October, it will take only one more major scandal to surpass the high sleaze mark of October 1994.

*Sleaze, a back formation from the far older sleazy, with a first citation date in the OED of 1967. Sleazy dates back to 1670 in the form Sleasie or Slesey, meaning inferior fabric from Silesia. The meaning generalised from shabby cloth to shabby standards in general.

William Hartston