I read that for some reason the term “frustrated” as used by the Prime Minister in the above clip was a source of humor for many and embarrassment for Dorries herself, evincing multiple apparently sincerely abject quasi-private (i.e. via personal text message) apologies from the prime minister later on.
I don’t understand why this is, though.
Does “frustrated” mean something to the British that it doesn’t mean to me?
I think there’s an undertone or innuendo of sexual frustration implied. I may be wrong.
I’m going to assume that the joke is “frustrated” = “sexually frustrated” in this context.
Indeed, words take on connotations not always evident to people used to taking them at their denotations.
My German professor explained to us when introducing idioms that one should be very careful with the simplest statements because they are the most likely to have idiomatic connotations. IIRC, the English “I am cold” must be translated to the German “Es macht mir kalt” (lit., “it makes me cold”) because the German “Ich bin kalt” (lit., “I am cold”) means, idiomatically, “I am frigid” in the sexual sense.
Okay, I get it.
I love how the British Parliament interacts with the PM. I wish we could have those kind of free-for-alls between the president and Congress. They tell you who’s who.
If something is funny and you don’t know why, I’ve found it usually has to do with sex. Well, sex or farts.
Even better, like the letter Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent to the California State Assembly.
I don’t know who this person is, exactly, but reading her Wikipedia entry, should support the idea that the “frustration” is a sexual frustration joke hypothesis.
Maybe it’s just because I need a nap, but how do Englishmen express normal frustration if that word now has been co-opted to only its sexual meaning? I’m having trouble thinking of synonyms.
Verklempt?
For what it’s worth, that should be “Mir ist kalt” rather than “Es macht mir kalt”. Being a native speaker of German, I’ve never heard “Ich bin kalt” used in a sexual sense, but it certainly isn’t the idiomatic way of saying “I am cold”.
They made a joke about this on the BBC News Quiz last Friday: “David Cameron has denied that he meant any innuendo in his comment, and he said that if she wants an apology he’ll happily give her one.”
Vielen dank.
German class was over 20 years ago, and I knew in posting that I’d probably get it wrong. 
So you’re no longer frustrated, eh?
The implication, probably unintended at the time, was that Ms Dories, who filled her boots on expenses a couple of years ago, and got re-elected, is obsessed with sex, (consequences of, or prevention of) and the thought that someone, somewhere, might be having a good time.
Oh, I’m sure he’ll give it to her. He’ll give it to her just the way she wants it.
They say frustrated. It’s only in some contexts that frustrated is an innuendo. Nadine Dorries is disliked by quite a lot of people and most of the bills she tries to push through are connected to sex in some way. So people find it funny to suggest that she’s sexually frustrated herself. She’s probably not, though; despite her espousing of conservative values and sexual abstinence teaching in schools, she’s in a long-term relationship with a married man.
Based on your username alone I’m going to go with the ‘well yeah :p’ response.
-XT
I got the impression that this woman was a prudish, social-conservative type which gave a subtext to the “frustrated” remark? Is that correct? Kind of a UK version of Christine O’Donnell?