The Daily Mail jumped to Boris Johnson’s defence following a bizarre speech at theConfederation of British Industry yesterday.
The prime minister – who also made a passing comparison between himself and Moses – trekked to South Shields to explain his new-found enthusiasm for wind power.
But like many parents of toddlers, Mr Johnson’s mind may not have been as focused on the task in hand as he might have liked.
Peppa Pig
Rather than spending hours in No 10 or Chequers putting a final polish on his big speech to the Confederation of British Industry, Mr Johnson spent Sunday at a theme park devoted to a cartoon pig.
Mr Johnson described Peppa Pig as “pure genius”, despite resembling a “Picasso-like hairdryer”, with the show a £6 billion massive global success story.
“I was a bit hazy what I would find at Peppa Pig World but I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place,” Mr Johnson said about his day out at the Hampshire attraction.
“It has very safe streets, discipline in schools, a heavy emphasis in new mass transit systems, I noticed, even if they are a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig.”
“Missing the point”
The ramblings came as a bit of a concern to many, with one ITV journalist even asking about the PM’s welfare in an interview following the speech.
But according to Alex Brummer we’ve all missed the point.
Writing in the Daily Mail, he said: “Boris Johnson may have failed to impress the denizens of the Confederation of British Industry with a disjointed keynote speech that digressed into the joys of Peppa Pig, but his critics are missing the point.
“The Prime Minister might not have been his usual articulate self yesterday but he was on to something of great importance for the UK’s future wealth.
“Freed from the narrow focus of physical trade with the European Union, the UK now has a real opportunity to take the creative and imaginative sector – covering every aspect of entertainment and design, advertising, marketing, IT, publishing etc – to the next level.
“And by citing Peppa Pig, the PM was tapping into one of the UK’s greatest export success stories.”
Scraping the barrell
But judging by the comments, not many people were impressed by Brummer’s “unique take”.
James from Tunbridge Wells said: “Peppa is the most privileged pig in the world..and how did he gain such privilege, the usual methods and construct, all the usual means of advantage not afforded the regular person, all adding up to extreme capitalism and ad-man Johnson and his fellow extreme capitalist all get-off on it.”
While others pointed out that trying to paint a catastrophic speech as sane is “insane”.
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