Campbell tables ‘ouija board’ question at Westminster

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 22nd November 2014 - Picture by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. 2014 DUP Conference at the La Mon House Hotel. Gregory Campbell MP MLA

The DUP man asked the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills “if he will bring forward legislative proposals for regulating the sale of ouija boards”.

Responding on Monday, Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson from the department said that the government has no plans to regulate the sale of the items.

Ouija Boards, also known as a ‘spirit board’ or ‘talking board’, is marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9 and the words yes and no.

According to the 1998 book ‘American Folklore: An encyclopedia’, it was regarded as an innocent parlour game with no associations with the occult until Spiritualist Pearl Curran popularised its use as a divining tool during the First World War.

The ouija board has become associated with evil, supernatural forces largely thanks to the smash-hit 1973 horror film ‘The Exorcist’ which followed the story of a young girl who became possessed by the Devil after using the ouija board.