Politics

Internet poet gives ‘If’ a Downing Street party remix

A popular internet poet has rewritten Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ after fresh pictures of Boris Johnson drinking at a Downing Street event were leaked.

ITV News has published four images showing the prime minister with a drink in his hand while standing behind a table littered with wine bottles and food.

The pictures were taken at a leaving party for then-director of communications Lee Cain on November 13 2020, eight days after Mr Johnson imposed England’s second national coronavirus lockdown.

For four weeks, people were banned from social mixing, other than to meet one person outside.

Labour said the images show there is “no doubt now” that Mr Johnson “lied” to Parliament when he repeatedly insisted all rules had been followed in Downing Street.

Johnson was not fined by the Metropolitan Police over the event seen in the images, which show at least nine people in close proximity along with six bottles of wine.

Internet poet Brian Bilston has rewritten Kipling’s ‘If’ in the aftermath of the leak.

The poem reads: “If you can flout the law with bluff and bluster

“And not care whether you are believed,

“Yours is this land and everything that’s in it,

“And – as you wished – you’ll be PM, my son”

Read the poem in full below:

Related: Watch: The moment the PM denied there was a party on Nov 13th in parliament

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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Tags: Partygate