Amid Johnson’s Remembrance Sunday gaffes, media hacks struggle to keep focus on Corbyn

Boris Johnson and others at cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 2019
Ed Sykes


As Jeremy Corbyn announced bold plans for veterans on Remembrance Sunday, Boris Johnson seemed to be busy making public gaffes. And even right-wing media hacks struggled to keep their usual focus on anti-Corbyn propaganda.

Hard-right media forced to cover Johnson gaffes

Johnson’s gaffes forced the Daily Mail to report on the Awkward moment Boris Johnson sets off to lay his poppy wreath at the Cenotaph too early and has to make a hasty retreat. The Express, meanwhile, said Boris Johnson left red-faced after two awkward gaffes at Remembrance Sunday ceremony. To be fair, the latter also wrote a separate piece speaking of “outrage” over how Corbyn had bowed (remember how particular the right wing is about how people should bow?). But thanks to Johnson’s gaffes, hard-right media outlets simply couldn’t turn this year’s Remembrance Sunday into yet another ‘Attack Corbyn Fest’.

Johnson’s mistakes included putting a wreath upside down and setting off early to go and lay that wreath (embarrassingly forcing him to turn back):

Johnson not good in public, or with the public

The Tory election campaign has not been very public-friendly so far. Johnson has hardly met any ordinary voters, preferring carefully managed PR events instead. During a school visit on 8 November, for example, there was apparently no opportunity for year 12 and 13 pupils to meet and question Johnson. Instead, they had to stay in their common room until he had left.

Then there was his woeful campaign launch:

And who can forget his PR stunt at a hospital, where people booed loudly as he left?

In short, it looks like the Tories simply shouldn’t let Boris Johnson loose in public. Because he’s a total and utter disaster. For the sake of everyone else, however, his public bumbling is a gift – as it shows us just what an absolute mess he and his party truly are.

Featured image via ITV News

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  • Show Comments

    1. The best way to honour the sacrifice of fallen service personnel & their families is to try our utmost to never engage in armed conflict, unless there is really & truly no alternative to protect others from immediate danger.
      I truly believe ONLY Jeremy Corbyn would be that person. I say this as a former service person, who was sent into war & conflict by unscrupulous opportunistic politicians in the past.

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    2. A lot of media propaganda about Jeremy being a “weak-kneed pacifist” must come back to slap them in the face on this Remembrance Day in the run-up to a general election. Most people know Britain is at war because our side started them, whereas Jeremy says he wouldn’t start war–which is the not the same (though they try to equate it) as saying he wouldn’t fight to defend us from attack.

      Tell those who want war if they want to fight we will let them. Make them defend their own positions, not let them force us to defend ours. Same anti-Semitism smears. Stop taking this shit lying down.

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      1. All those politicians that desire war should be the first on the front lines, same with MSM and any other pro-war pundits, while the rest of us watch, Big-Brother style, as they get what is coming to them.

        Evil politicians have for far too long hidden their yellow-bellies behind the lives of those who signed up to protect their nations, using the lives and blood of these loyal and heroic human beings like toilet-paper.

        It disgusts me to the core that our system allows such hateful practices to continue, and ANY person who thinks murdering others for their land and resources is a good thing, doesn’t deserve to breathe another breath, or to infect the the World with their cancerous thoughts.

        On that point, Tony Blair is a murderous War Criminal and has no business being in Labour. He shouldn’t just be kicked out, he should be dumped naked in the middle of Baghdad with a sign saying ‘Misson Accomplished’ tattooed to his forehead. That would be justice, and it would send a clear message to those who would use innocent soldiers to murder innocent people, just so that some walking-dead politicians can look ‘good’ in front of the electorate or their so-called allies, or to distract us from the shafting they are preparing for us.

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    3. Corbyn remains on record as supporting continual legal assault on soldiers, and he has certainly said a lot of things in support of those that want to kill our soldiers, and indeed have killed our soldiers. He can’t have it both ways.

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      2. There is no such thing as “legal assault”. What you’re trying to say is that Corbyn thinks that the military, just like former members of the IRA, should be subject to the law. I agree with him. What you propose is an assault upon the law, which you obviously don’t believe should be applicable to the military. You’d fit perfectly into a totalitarian state.

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      3. Show us the records, prove your words, or go fuck yourself, troll.

        We all know BombDr is a slanderous piece of shit who should be charged under criminal law for defamation of character.

        BombDr remains on record as supporting criminal enterprise, and has certainly said a lot of things in support of killing our soldiers, and murdering babies and children for fun.

        BombDr has a long track record of inciting hatred and murder of all humans, and all living things, and repeatedly went on record to claim that incest/pedophilia/and rape are fun and legal.

        BombDr is personally responsible for organising 9/11 and 7/7, and was best friends with Osama Bin Laden, having personally bankrolled every terrorist operation in living memory, all because he wasn’t allowed to wank in public.

        See how that works BombDr? Not one shred of evidence, but you are guilty because I said so … innit?

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    5. I happily cheer when Johnson makes a gaffe. However, the gaffes mentioned here are trivial and ought not sway a rational voter against him. Better for supporters of ousting the Conservatives from power, including the Canary’s team of writers, to concentrate upon analysis of Johnson’s proposals, their lack of coherence, and their consequences.

      As is usual during election campaigns political parties are making promises of various degree of cynical appeal to voters without explanation of how these fit a broader picture of principle. Governments seeking to retain power are always in a weak position in this regard. For instance, Johnson’s promises regarding NHS funding etc. should receiver rejoinder of “If this is so vital why did not the government take action five years or more ago?”

      Examination of the Guardian’s aggregation of opinion polls shows the Conservatives streaking ahead of Labour immediately after Johnson was elected leader. In part this may have been because he promised to end Brexit torpor. Yet, his ‘colourful’ personality may have figured too. Superficially, Johnson comes across as charismatic; this based upon his supposedly witty quips and ‘no nonsense’ bombastic manner. Under pressure he has revealed loose grip on circumstances and noticeably floundered when unable to avoid difficult questions. It’s clear from utterances throughout his political career that Johnson is not a man for detail. That was highlighted during the Skripal fiasco and again during this election campaign. Unfortunately a broad brush stroke approach can work only when he wielding the brush has the intellectual capacity and experience to distinguish between unimportant detail and the necessary.

      Perhaps, it’s only a matter of enough rope let out before Johnson strangles his ambition through revealing such lack of inner substance as to make him a disastrous prime minister. None of Johnson’s co-conspirators in the would-be neo-liberal coup matches him for flamboyance and ‘push’. Maybe the coup’s success hinges entirely on Johnson. So as his bluster becomes revealed as empty shall prospect of electoral success fade away. Mr Corbyn need only polish his already established reputation as a clear thinker.

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