If ever a publicity stunt showed that Tory Party chairman James Cleverly has difficulty living up to his surname, it has to be the attempt to deflect from the party’s descent into chaos by projecting on to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Jezza has overseen three lost votes for alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, he’s forced the Tories to take a No Deal Brexit off the table, and he’s shown real leadership.
Bozo The Clown, on the other hand, has floundered. His Police stunt was widely condemned, he flopped at PMQs, and his sacking of 21 of his own MPs was totally ineffective. The Tories are a mess. So whose fault is that? Well, in the perverse world inhabited by The Blue Team, it must be Labour’s fault. So off went Cleverly to claim that it was all because Corbyn was afraid. He was frit. Worse, he was chicken!
To this end, Cleverly had Corbyn’s head photoshopped onto the body of someone wearing a chicken suit, proclaiming “Thinking about what to have for lunch. Large bucket of boneless (certainly spineless) JFC (Jeremy’s Frightened & Chicken) perhaps”. Laugh? I thought I’d never start. Then the Tories’ Twitter feed overreached itself.
“Hey [KFC UK and Ireland], we’ve found an even bigger chicken than you” it jeered. But, sad to say, KFC is not a chicken. It is a fast food chain that sells chicken. Worse for the Tories, it has a Twitter feed that can bite back. Which it then did. “This is KFC not LBC don’t @ me”. Ouch! Then came criticism from the Tories’ own side.
Sayeeda Warsi was unimpressed by the antics of her successor. “This James is silly playground behaviour … We are in the middle of a national crisis and this is our response … How can grown men reduce themselves to this level of silliness. What has become of this great Party of ours”. Could it get any worse? It certainly could.
Led by Donkeys, the campaign which had already projected the reclining figure of Jacob Rees Mogg on to Edinburgh Castle along with the strapline “Lying Tory”, copied the Tory tactics by putting Bozo’s head on to the figure of Orville the duck. And then projecting it on to Cardiff Castle, captioned “LAME DUCK … Totally useless Prime Minister”.
Small wonder the condemnation of Cleverly’s stunt was so vehement, typified by “[James Cleverly] definitely gets the award for the most childish MP in parliament. Do [Tories] ever talk about their policies? Piece of advice to them, name calling is not big and it's not clever & incidentally the [Lib Dems] already tried this and it backfired”. There was more.
One Lib Dem was, on this occasion, on the same page. “We don't do politics like this in Britain. Also it's a weird strategy. We know that the opposition parties just don't want an election until Article 50 has been extended. I just think it's really weird how he thinks he can sort of pretend people don't know that? Odd”. Then came the obvious comparison.
“I can think of a few people visiting foodbanks who might like some chicken, James. They can't joke about what they're having for lunch because your government is starving them. And your solution is cheap chlorinated imports from the US”. Well, quite.
James Cleverly fouls up again. Any more and he’ll make Brandon Lewis look competent.
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It's been four long decades in coming......but here it is - complete ignominy for a tory party of economic looting, lies, hypocrisy, deliberately manufactured division and sheer ignorance, even hatred for the rest of the country outside the M25. Now they're allied with the very worst of the US version.
ReplyDeleteIf Corbyn is a chicken he's coming home to roost. It remains to be seen if he's too late. If he is too late, 14 million in poverty will soon be 20 million and there'll be even more US military bases on Airstrip One. After which, democracy will be nonexistent and Britain will be a nation of potential victims. All of it cheered on by an even more cowardly and craven corporate media and its bought-and-paid-for clerks.
Nobody can say the warnings haven't been there for years.
Whoever runs KFC's twitter page is an absolute legend. The replies are worth a read too. So refreshing to see such friendly, witty solidarity against the govt
ReplyDeleteIt seems the owner of the copyright to the chicken photograph is contemplating action as it was used without permission.
ReplyDeleteWhen Churchill was warned that Britain's neck would be wrung like a chicken, he responded with his Ottawa speech "Some chicken, some neck".
ReplyDeleteIn a modern parallel, those throwing this week's "chicken shade" have lost 3 straight rounds without landing a single punch.
Mark (17:42) - Looks like a Bible verse when I put it like that.
The folks at KFC will well remember the disruption caused by a simple switch of haulier.
Like the Blitz, we survived the great chicken famine of 2018, but nobody in their right mind would vote for a repeat.
If this is the impact of one business changing haulier, where will no deal leave us?
@Steve, haha perhaps the verse to be found in Mark 17:42 is about not counting your chickens before they are hatched...or before a Brexit deal is struck at least ;)
ReplyDeleteOur local JFC has on offer this evening...
ReplyDeleteChicken thigh fillets, or breasts marinated in lime
Apparently and this takes some believing...
They don't do a piece with a semblance of spine.
Peace.
And Amber Rudd has just resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary and from the Tory PLP, saying she doesn't beleive Bozza wants a deal..
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the MSM claim the Tories are 10 points ahead, just how??
I think that we overestimate the political knowledge of the general public. I would be shocked if more than, say, 20% of people could name the Secretary for Work and Pensions. To a cast majority politics is "Boris is in charge" and they still like him. All the bad stuff is happening around him rather than to him. They don't see this stupid Corbyn-bashing advert. They don't see the resignations. They just see Johnson saying that he's standing up to the EU.
DeleteThe polls can be inaccurate to a few points and things can and will shift over the next few weeks, but the chance of another election resulting in a Tory majority is a distinct (and depressing) possibility.
Shouldn't that read: 'james cleverly FOWLS up again?'
ReplyDelete(I'll get me cagoule)
It doesn't take "political knowledge" to acknowledge this country is going down the shitter faster than you can say "Bozo". All it takes is a modicum of commonsense and reasonable acquaintance with the English language.
ReplyDeleteI think we overestimate the "stupidity" of the general public. After forty years of utter moral corruption the chickens are gradually coming home to roost as people realise nobody is safe from untramelled greed and theft - sooner or later, one way or another, capitalism comes after you and your family.
"Stupid" is perhaps too harsh a term. I'd say it's more political apathy about the structure and details of politics. People are annoyed at, say, NHS waiting times, but that doesn't necessarily translate in to anger at a government cutting NHS resources. They could blame immigration, or greedy junior doctors, or any of the other excuses that some parts of the media and right-wing Facebook posts give.
DeleteI mean, there are parts of the UK that voted to leave the EU even though EU money and support are basically the only things that have kept them going. Assuming that all those people have suddenly "woken up" in the past three years is optimistic.
I'm surprised that when cleverly made that tweet that the straw-haired imbecile didn't reply along the lines of: 'And will you be having the watermelon with that?'
ReplyDelete@ 18:20.
ReplyDeleteThat's some misinterpretation of "...forty years...gradually coming home..." to "...suddenly woken up..."
Mind boggling in fact.
Sorry, what? I was taking your post to be a general comment on people realising that modern capitalism is bad for them, with the implication that that's tied to the Conservative party. I was merely saying I'm not sure the public have realised that. If you meant something else I apologise.
DeleteTo 21:14.
ReplyDeleteNothing to apologise for.
Just shows words matter.