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Originally Posted by Sipowicz
This one I do know: The term "Toeing the Line" comes from the Houses of Parliament. In the days when our MP's WERE gentlemen and carried swords, heated debates often ended in sword fights between front benchers. In order to restrict this habit, the then Speaker ordered opposing MP's to stand opposite each other, sword tip to sword tip and a line was painted on the floor of the chamber at the tip of each foot. Afterwards, anyone making a speech from the front benches had to stand with their toes behind the line without crossing it!!
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two more parlimentary facts...
1) the Queen has to knock to enter the House of Commons and cannot enter if she is not given permission.
2) the expression 'do you want to take this outside' also comes from parliament; a politician cannot be held to be slanderous for any comments made in the house of commons, so they would say nasty and possibly untrue things about it other knowing they could get away with it. If the person being insulted wasn't happy he would ask the other person if he wanted to take it outside, ie if you say it outside this room i will sue your ass
Many people think it comes from pub brawls, but years ago it was more common for the fights to be in the pubs rather than outside and people had on quarms about doing this!
MB