Before the final debate, in the course of the last few weeks Mr Blunkett has also appeared to lump the judiciary and the House of Lords - neither of which suffer often from being accused of rampant liberalism - into some kind of "politically correct", namby pamby bunch of hand-wringing liberals standing in the way of the nation's security.

BBC: Blunkett pays price for his bill

CEOs, many of them from the oil and gas industry, who regard environmentalism as namby-pamby nonsense.

ECONOMIST: Christine Todd Whitman

Politicians, preachers, lawyers, bureaucrats and, one suspects, journalist-novelists like himself, also flunk his test of masculinity by engaging in namby-pamby occupations.

ECONOMIST: Atlanta burnt again

Indeed, some hedge fund old-timers like Michael Steinhardt think that their modern-day counterparts are far too namby-pamby and are too ready to be content with single-digit annual performance.

ECONOMIST: Despite mixed results, hedge funds earn a little respect