Oh James. James, James, James. It’s one thing to be undone by the Community Note feature on Twitter/X – but when it cites figures from the Home Office as a source to disprove your point, that’s a whole different ball game.
James Cleverly left red-faced by ‘Community Note’
The Home Secretary – fresh from telling a terrible joke about sedating his wife by using Rohypnol – thought he’d found a safer haven on the social media platform. However, the tide turned on him fairly quickly, following a claim he made about small boat crossings.
Cleverly, perhaps not living up to his surname on this occasion, trumpeted the fact that there had been no small boat arrivals in the UK for the first time in five years. Ignoring all other influential circumstances, he decided to pat himself and his colleagues on the back.
What did James Cleverly say about small boats?
The senior Tory suggested that the lack of migrants arriving on our shores was down to the hard work of the UK government, Border Force officials, and their French counterparts. However, he made one rather glaring ommission.
Storm Gerrit has been causing havoc across the UK, flooding towns and creating hazardous conditions. Winds pushing 90km/h have been reported around the British Isles, with gale-force winds making the seas that surround us utterly treacherous.
Bad weather has ‘seasonal effect’ on boat crossings, according to Home Office
As per the government’s own literature, adverse weather conditions play a massive part in reducing boat crossings. Over the last week, heavy rain and blustery conditions have besieged the UK. Mr. Cleverly, however, didn’t want to mention that part.
Luckily for us, Musk-era Twitter/X does have one very useful feature. The ‘Community Notes’ tool allows users to correct misleading information, subject to the approval of other readers. Indeed, this post was ripe for the picking…