That's not a filibuster, this is a filibuster

Mr Copeland's contribution was one of the longest any backbencher has made in recent times

If you check out the Assembly Official Report on Tuesday's marathon welfare reform debate, you can read the full transcript of Ulster Unionist Michael Copeland's speech, which began at around 4.50pm and ended just after 5.45pm.

Along the way, the East Belfast MLA treated the chamber to quotes from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, Winston Churchill and finished off with a line from Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump: "that's all I have to say about that."

Although some ministers have taken as much time in the Chamber (Alex Attwood springs to mind), Mr Copeland's contribution was one of the longest any backbencher has made in recent times.

Ed Miliband placed Benjamin Disraeli's One Nation philosophy centre stage during this autumn's conference season. But speeches like Michael Copeland's remind me of another Disraeli quote when he described Gladstone as "inebriated by the exuberance of his own verbosity."

However, flicking through the glossy Stormont history book on sale in the Assembly gift shop, I realised that we in the modern press pack know nothing about filibusters.

Back in 1936 the Independent Unionist MP for Shankill, Tommy Henderson made a speech nearly 10 hours long attacking a government finance bill line by line.

Mr Henderson concluded his remarks at 3.55 am on the morning of 27 May 1936 to the great relief of his fellow parliamentarians, who had to hang on and listen because the bill had to be passed before the deadline.

It was reported that when his work was done the Shankill MP refused offers of a lift from other politicians, eventually hitching a ride home in the delivery van of a local newspaper.