It must have seemed a good idea at the time it was approved by his chief polecat Dominic Cummings: alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson with ranks of Police cadets behind him, bringing a clear and populist law and order message to his adoring people. Instead, what was clearly timed to be the fist stunt in a General Election campaign turned out not to be cunning at all. Especially after it all went wrong.
Bozo had arrived at the Police training school near Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, an hour late. The cadets had been waiting in the sunshine, all lined up to create the kind of backdrop that might be expected of a totalitarian dictatorship. And it was not long before a photo of Kim Jong-un striking a similar pose was doing the rounds.
It got worse: as the Guardian has reported, “The prime minister’s speech at a police training college in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was meant to highlight the government’s commitment to returning 20,000 officers to the streets. But it will be remembered for his sometimes rambling remarks about Brexit and the prospects of an election, and the moment when an officer behind him had to sit down after feeling faint”.
In other words, Bozo had turned the occasion into a blatantly party political one. And the adverse comment was not long in coming. “The shadow policing minister, Louise Haigh, has written to the Cabinet Office asking why the police were used for a highly political speech … The Police Federation of England and Wales also criticised the event … The West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Mark Burns-Williamson, called on Johnson to apologise”. And there was more. Rather a lot more.
Edwin Hayward watched the speech and concluded “Letters to the 1922 committee in 3... 2... 1… That speech by Boris Johnson was beyond diabolical. Rambling, over long, incoherent in places. Thrown by the questions. Then when a police officer near-fainted behind him, he barely paused before continuing”. And more.
Ash Sarkar noted “A public servant faints behind our Prime Minister. And rather than trying to help, he just turns around to continue slagging off Jeremy Corbyn”. Lewis Goodall had seen through Bozo’s bluster on the anti-No Deal Brexit bill, too: “He has just given the Opposition the perfect incentive to forgo an election and keep him in place. Because when the law passes if he cannot abide by it or find a way around, he has to resign”.
Peter Oborne, meanwhile, was homing in on Bozo’s dishonesty. “I have just added Boris Johnson's claim at his press conference today that the Tory Party has a zero tolerance policy towards Islamophobia to my bulging dossier of Mr Johnson's lies”. David Leigh was on the same page. “‘There were no plans for an early General Election. This would not be right for the British people: they had faced an awful lot of electoral events in recent years’. Johnson to his own Cabinet 28 August. A smirking lie? To his own Cabinet??? Blimey”.
And former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal had seen enough. “Mr Johnson, You don’t have to say anything, but using Police Officers as political football is totally out of order. Particularly as Your Govt demolished their numbers, 800+ police stations & created 1000s more victims as a result. My family had to bury one of them. Yes, I’m angry”.
No right-leaning paper had the photo of Bozo with the cops this morning. I wonder why.
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4 comments:
Finally, Yank "style" political propaganda gets a beach head in Blighty.
Bozo might as well sell Britain to Trumpica now. The two fat getts like doing "deals".
Government by spivs and barrow boys.
Get used to it.
And it seems that this stunt has incurred the wrath of the Yorkshire police chief whose agreement was only on the proviso that his speech was about officer recruitment and not Brexit
Mark. The Yorkshire police chief must be the only person in the UK do be unaware of de Piffle's track record as a serial liar.
@Arnold, Indeed! It doesn't say much for policing that he took BoJo the Clown on trust does it?
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