Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Monday 11 November 2019

Press Cenotaph Hypocrisy

Who can forget the events of Remembrance Day 2015? Well, our free and fearless press can, for starters: back then, one alleged slip by one party leader saw the entire right-wing pack descend in characteristic fashion on Jeremy Corbyn, for what was claimed to be an insufficiently grovelling bow, following his laying a wreath at the Cenotaph.
The Cenotaph, Whitehall

But four years on, and a different party leader not merely allegedly fouling up, but provably and comprehensively fouling up, and they all keep schtum. Because this time it was alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson going horribly wrong, and to add to the Tories’ already shambolic election campaign would never do.

Bozo The Clown, as PM, would lay his wreath before other party leaders. But he had not been paying attention and set off before the attendant soldiers had been stood at ease. So he had to backtrack. The noticeable lack of attention - fidgeting, looking around - occurred during the two minutes’ silence. Royal Central summarised the Bozo faux pas.
The commemorations didn’t get off to a good start for the Prime Minister when he was caught on camera looking around during the two minutes of silence with his unbuttoned coat flying in the wind … He then walked towards the Cenotaph too early and out of time, causing further criticism … However, the biggest mistake was when he laid his wreath at the base of the memorial upside down”. Maximum disrespect all round.

He looked like a mobile shambles, messed up his walk to lay the wreath, then laid it upside down. So where was the press condemnation this morning? Had Jezza done that, it would have been all over the front pages. But you know the answer already: on those front pages, there is not a word about it. Even though the press knew what he’d done.
For instance, Mail Online managed to tell readers “Awkward moment Boris Johnson sets off to lay his poppy wreath at the Cenotaph too early and has to make a hasty retreat”, although they missed the upside-down wreath laying and shambolic presentation. Free sheet Metro laid into both Bozo and Jezza: “Boris criticised for laying wreath upside down and Corbyn slammed for ‘tiny bow’”. But neither paper said anything this morning.

The Daily Brexit, still sometimes called the Express, also noticed: “Boris Johnson was left red-faced after he set off too early to lay his poppy wreath during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph. The Conservative leader was embarrassingly forced into a retreat after he recognised his mistake in front of national broadcasters. In another gaffe, Mr Johnson also appeared to lay his poppy wreath upside down in the Cenotaph”.
But no front page howling this morning. Instead, there is fulsome praise for claims that the economy is performing better. The Murdoch Sun has not mentioned Bozo’s gaffes at all, preferring to run wall-to-wall Tory propaganda instead.

The Bozo Cenotaph shambles encapsulates the sheer venality of our free and fearless press. It is airbrushing of reality that would have made the editors of Pravda and Isvestiya blush. And it demonstrates the challenge for Labour in the upcoming General Election.

We have a press desperate to put an inept, philandering, mendacious, bigoted, uncaring clown into Downing Street. Because he’s one of theirs. I’ll just leave that one there.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

7 comments:

Mark said...

BBC Breakfast this morning chose to show Johnson laying a wreath correctly as Foreign Sec at the 2016 Cenotaph instead, hoping we wouldn't notice that it was from 3 years ago rather than yesterday.

Arnold said...

At least the Mail got its priorities right.

"Meghan Markle dons £620 Tamara Mellon boots and a Sentaler navy coat as she attends her first Remembrance Day service at Westminster Abbey - and boosts her 'youthful glow' with peach blusher"
"Meghan Markle wows in £25,000 heart-shaped ruby earrings and bespoke Erdem dress at annual Festival of Remembrance event"
"How Meghan returned to her showbiz roots with high-voltage 'Hollywood' make-up for her first Cenotaph appearance – while sophisticated Kate opted for a more 'grown up' look for the solemn occasion"

Nigel Stapley said...

And it seems as if the BBC have been trying to cover the arse of their boy as well, with their coverage this morning cutting from yesterday's footage to a different set for the wreath-laying. In it, BS Johnson is wearing a different coat, the wreath is laid the right way up...and it's a completely different wreath!.

The footage was, apparently, from 2016.

The Boris Booster Club has blamed this on "a production error"...

Pendragon said...

Some of us, who are old enough to have had fathers and uncles in World War 2, treat voting almost as an Act of Remembrance. All my relatives survived their spell in the army but what about all those young men and women who didn't? What did they die for, if it wasn't for freedom? Is it really too onerous to spend half-an-hour of Election Day going to your local polling station? If you don't like any of the candidates then spoil your paper---at least you made the effort.
Why aren't our newspapers printing this message to the public, to encourage everyone to exercise their freedom to vote? Because a low turn-out favours the Conservatives?

Anonymous said...

The more I see of Bozo the more I am convinced he's a fat reactionary tory blurt who's a clear and present danger to what remains of British society.

Though doubtless he'll be supported by the usual public school sociopaths in MI5, MI6, the military, monopoly media, the Civil Service and the financial spiv "institutions" in commerce and industry. Mostly the same people who brought on the 2008 Depression.

Any working class man or woman who votes for that ugly specimen ought to urgently seek counselling. They might as well slit their own throat with a rusty bread knife.

rob said...


****Connections of the "right" sort****

Old friends, old friends sat on the park bench like bookends

A rumour, more gaffes had emerged

Could we please edit the event “carefully” for an old friend



Old friends political companions of the “right” sort

Lost in their plotting will Nigel take the bait

The Russians are waiting to hear the result

To start social media working for the old friends



Can you imagine years from today, a coup that started so bloodlessly

Cost the BBC it’s total credibility



(h/t Paul Simon)

casinositeone.JDS said...

Either way keep up the excellent quality writing.