Johnson had claimed Melton Mowbray pies sold in Iceland and Thailand but not in US, when giving example of US trade restriction
Boris Johnson has been accused of making up a claim about exports of an iconic British product in order to justify his sycophancy toward Donald Trump.
Johnson claimed that Melton Mowbray Pork pies are exported to Iceland and Thailand but not to the US, in an attempt to justify his eagerness to pursue a trade deal with the predatory US president – but Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association boss Matthew O’Callaghan told Radio 4 that Johnson’s claim was untrue and the pies are not exported to either country:
Labour activist @scousegirlmedia summed up:
SKWAWKBOX view:
Johnson’s ‘porkies’ are frequent, even routine – even if they don’t normally concern literal pork.
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There is a fail-safe way to detect whether Johnson is lying: look at his lips, if they are moving he is lying.
Door knocking this weekend I have experienced the very unpleasant phenomenon of voters appearing to have a positive attitude towards Johnson. Responses have been of the “at least he is getting things done” type,with NHS funding and police numbers being quoted. This attitude seems to come from the way the MSM unquestioningly report his every utterance and this pork pie nonesense is just one example. The story was all over the papers today and the BBC yesterday,the facts were covered in a short jokey interview this morning. As things stand we face an uphill battle should we get the October election so if you are able to do anything to help be it social media,canvassing or whatever now is the time to give it your best.
I’m afraid, Jim, that this experience was entirely predictable.
The IQ (Idiot Quotient) of the UK is one asset that ranks high by international standards. The Tories depend on it.
“The IQ (Idiot Quotient) of the UK is one asset that ranks high by international standards.”
Sarcasm aside, I assume you refer to the western allied bloc(k) in UK (establishment speak) that = ‘international’.
To keep up my troll and shill as well as ignorant status on here I’ve been awarded by some kinder, gentler LP members.
Interesting interviews from Eva Bartlett in St Petersburg.
https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1165878005333417984
Maria – “sarcasm aside”. Mmmm – it’s all about sarcasm – even cynicism – I’m afraid, as this country descends to the level of a banana republic sans bananas, whilst large swathes of the population trundle along thinking that Mr Toad – whose major attributes are incompetence and lying – is seen as a saviour.
The same burblers will also, no doubt, ramble on about how they long for authentic and honest politicians without taking ownership of what they vote for.
Actually – there is some objective evidence that the UK has among the lowest average IQ scores in Europe. Quelle surprise.
“…there is some objective evidence that the UK has among the lowest average IQ scores in Europe”.
Where? Don’t get me wrong, I totally believe it. Do tell so I can share it.
I can’t recall the reference, timfrom, and to be honest, such comparative studies/measures are fraught with difficulty – as is the very concept of IQ as a variable independent of educational and cultural issues.
But there was a reasonably recent news item.
The validating political point, of course, arises from the fact that a nation that makes the choices that the English have done consistently can’t be that bright 🙂
The Groan quoted a study estimating that half of England is owned by fewer than 25,000 people and calls that “less than 1% of its population.”
With a population of c.55 million 25,000 is TWENTY TIMES less than 1% at 0.05%.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/17/who-owns-england-thousand-secret-landowners-author
The fact that there are working people voting for the Tories – whose goal is to cultivate inequality until the 1% own 100% of the land – is enough proof of British gullibility for me to doubt the value of what only fools believe is a genuinely democratic process.
David – Guy Shrubsole’s recent book ‘Who Owns England?’ is really worth a read on this topic.
There’s a lot of incontinent excitement about the concept of ‘nationalisation’ – but little attention is paid to the issues around the ownership of land, which is far more fundamental to any concept of redistribution. The neglect has always puzzled me, given the original actual theft that has been involved, from the Norman Conquest through the era of enclosure to today.
I may have read a review of the book I think, rather than the book itself – one or two tidbits stuck, most memorable of which was the extent of Nicole Kidman’s family’s holdings. That was a surprise.
RH, I’m not sure banana republic is the correct term. I think our so called democratic and public sector system is being collapsed for private profit, via lack of trust that is being engineered and ingress of third sector and other vested interests into public domain, in favour of a fascistic Corporatist style of rule where private profit and rent seeking are put above the interests of the population, real economy and society.
UK public is so deeply propagandised it appears it no longer knows what is best for it and society but relies on ‘saviours’ from the current engineered chaos and fear mongering.
Jim
Do they trust him
Not to sell NHS to American Health Companies
Not to reduce police or police stations like he did as Mayor
Not to take country off a cliff
Make them pay for their TV licence if your over 75
Make them work till their 75
Force them to sell their homes to pay for social care
Introduce chlorinated chicken and GM foods into this country
Bankrupt the country, debt has gone up more than every other government combined
Schools closing one day a week
More tax cuts for the rich
More welfare cuts for the poorest
Cut the armed forces
Go ahead with Heathrow, HS2, Hinckly, Trident, Crossrail 2,
Close Fire Stations
Say ‘owt but his prayers’
Regards
“This attitude seems to come from the way the MSM unquestioningly report his every utterance and this pork pie nonesense is just one example. …”
The MSM have been telling lies about socialists for well over a century. All the positive coverage that Johnson is getting can easily be answered, but to do so involves Labour developing its own newspapers and media.
This place is a good start. So is the canvasser on the doorstep. But the only reason why there isn’t a Labour Daily is that the right wing (supported by the capitalists) doesn’t want one. And many Trade Unions prefer to operate in the dark, too.
“the only reason why there isn’t a Labour Daily is that the right wing (supported by the capitalists) doesn’t want one. ”
It may be comforting to indulge in over-simplification. But it doesn’t solve the problem – nor highlight the issue of the taste of large swathes of the population for the pap that comprises the MSM.
There’s victimhood. And then there’s willing compliance.
‘Responses have been of the “at least he is getting things done” type, with NHS funding and police numbers being quoted.’
Hopefully you told them how the NHS is being surreptitiously privatised by the Tories AND reminded them that it was the Tories who cut the number of police in the first place, etc, etc, etc. As for the “at least he is getting things done” type response, did they elaborate as to what they meant exactly, as it obviously implies that these things weren’t getting done before AND there were people they had in mind when they said it, as such. Presumably Theresa May and Co (as you have to be in power to get things done, or not get things done if you don’t want to)?
Ah, I see that Doug made more-or-less the same point whilst I was composing and typing out my post above.
As for GMOs (which Doug refers to):
https://off-guardian.org/2019/08/26/boris-johnson-gmos-and-glyphosate-irresponsible-negligent-and-criminal/
As I am sure you are aware time is limited on the doorstep. Some people will engage and listen but most want to tell you what they think and then shut the door. We had good leaflets covering many of the points Doug highlighted earlier and hopefully people will look at them. The problem is if the media continue to give Johnson such fawning coverage, facts often come a poor second to Tory lies.
Getting things done after 10 years of Tory neglect and Austerity for US working people but the first thing the Tories (and Lib Dems did) was to give tax cuts to the rich and big business TO PROTECT THEM FROM AUSTERITY!
Getting things done re Brexit – the Tories and Johnson have dithered for 3 plus years and counting which we need to continue to hammer home!
Getting things done, yes for the rich and for example (with Lib Dems) yes getting things done for hedge funds with £145m tax cuts for THEM and hedge funds gave Tories 50m!
Getting things done, yes to make up for losses to tax revenues from Tory (and Lib Dem) tax cuts to corporations the Tories increased VAT and this indirect tax hits the poorest most.
Labour will get things done for the many!
The Tories get things done for the few!
We just need to sharpen our arguments and communicate well and simply.
Not sure about “just” Bazza… 😎
Unfortunately there are numbers of Tory tolls pretending to be Labour members in order to spread gloom and doom, so would you name the constituency and streets where you were door knocking and got this response?
Yes, Jim, please name the constituency, so it can be better targeted.
Jims needs to identify voting intent and get them on the computer…..waste of time talking to them torys,….Jim is not a pretend Labour activists,but probably struggling with the response on the doorstep…..but at least he’s out there wearing down the shoe leather…..Remember jim that if they’re long time Tory voters they have no morality whatever,and you can save the time for anyone else knocking again!if you record them as definite no….good luck Jim!
“Unfortunately there are numbers of Tory tolls pretending to be Labour members in order to spread gloom and doom”
… and also numbers of Labour members who don’t understand the seriousness of the problem on the ground that Jim is highlighting.
A long while ago I thought that a Labour Party TV channel might gain us some traction and I still think it might help.
I thought concentrating on comedy might work best because I’m from an earlier time when comics, musicians, artists and artistes were mostly left-leaning-to-Bolshie.
Now I’m less sure – lately I’ve heard audiences laughing at Davidson-esque garbage that would have earned only rotten tomatoes and stony silences years ago.
A nation that takes Mr Toad’s lying rambles seriously doesn’t have much of a sense of humour.
Or much of a future!
All pork pies are rubbish because they’ve got bits of dead pigs in them ugh.
He has the rambling waffle down to a T, the “porkie pies” streaming out like a bad case of verbal diarrhea, the cries of “fake news” will be echoing in no 10 along with the “prime” subscribe & save bulk delivery of “fake tan (Tango-man orange, endorsed by potus)”, and the transformation will be complete.
In the meantime while these 2 stroke each others egos and strut around preening, our country gets shafted yet again
Sarah
@ScouseGirlMedia
Is anything said by Boris Johnson true?
Oh yes. We know that when he promises us that the NHS will not be included in any trade deal with the US, he’ll be true to his word (lol
!) 😆
It was no doubt deliberate – ie using a pork pie to tell a pork pie. The psychopaths do so like to amuse themselves and their fellow psychopaths.
He’s a clown, all he”s missing is the red nose
Trumptons found his mini me
Now can you trust him not to sell the NHS to American Health Companies, Cummings knows this is the single issue that will win or lose the GE,
So we need to hammer it home, that the cheap and nasty Tory party have a visceral hatred of public services in General and the NHS in particular
So Bozzo shows us all his knowledge of import,export business,whilst doing his own version of brexit… I think we all know where he should stuff his Pork pie.
“He’s a clown”
No he’s not. He’s a toxic, dangerous snake-oil salesman with the moral compass of a turd.
… and a lot of voters are dim enough to think he’s a reincarnation of Maggie Churchill. Whereby hangs the tail.
Some brilliant Leftie posted a great idea on Facebook recently. Every time we use the NHS we are given a bill, this is not to be paid but just for information to show you what could happen if we lost the NHS to the Johnson/Trump Barbarians! But I am reading more and more about the structural decline of Neo-Liberalism – cause of death – it’s drive for cheap labour, restricting commodity purchase by workiing people and, knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing!
I just did a search re >boris Johnson pork pies< to see how widely Johnson's claim was reported in the media, and was more than a little surprised to find that it has been quite widely reported that he was telling porkies. But then in the list of search results I came across the following article:
https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/uk/boris-johnsons-pork-pie-claims-defended-by-uk-officials/
I just went back to me list of search results and, as such, had a read of the Guardian article, which includes quite a few interesting facts/details (not mentioned in the above article) Anyway, here’s a taster:
Downing Street has hit back, insisting Walker and Son, a certified Melton Mowbray pork pie producer, does export them to Thailand or Iceland. The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association has since confirmed to the Guardian that the bakery does not export outside the EU and does not send the pies to Reykjavik and Bangkok.
Earlier on Monday, O’Callaghan told the Guardian he did not know of a producer that sent its products to Reykjavik and Bangkok. But Walker and Son was reportedly used as an example in a 2015 briefing document from the British-American Business Group, during the TTIP negotiations.
It is understood that a small number of pies were sent to Iceland and Thailand as part of a trial in 2015, but Walker and Son have not exported pies to either country for at least a couple of years.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/26/telling-porkies-boris-johnson-melton-mowbray-pork-pie-claim-fails-truth-test
That should of course have read…. ‘I just went back to my list…’, or perhaps ‘…the list…’ !
Allan
You touch on something that drives me doolally on an almost daily basis, the politicisation of the civil service
How many times does the government put up the department to defend cheap and nasty Tory party policies
Worst case DWP and Universal Credit, but so entrenched now there is rarely any scrutiny of the policy behind the issue,
Are they allowed to do this, hide behind Her Majesties Civil Servants
Maria 26/08/2019 at 7:30 pm
Thankyou for the link , it was an interesting and refreshing interview from a writer I will now follow .
I hope the contributors were giving honest and factual responses .
In any case , the description of a wide ranging education can only be admired . Something that is obviously sadly lacking in Britain and the U.S.
I have no reason to doubt the interviewees were telling the truth as they see it, perhaps they didn’t mention things they don’t like or don’t agree with, that is to be expected when the ‘news’ we get in the west re Russia is only negative. British media concentrate on followers of Navalny who is around 2% in the polls. I am not a believer that everyone in a country doesn’t want some change or other and there is no one that opposes the current Gov. and I am sure there are many poor and struggling.
Eva Bartlett is a great person to follow. Her older reports from the illegally occupied Palestinian territories are a real eyeopener. Her reporting from Syria again contradicts the narrative we are exposed to in the ‘west’.
Eva Bartlett is a great person to follow.,..Her reporting from Syria again contradicts the narrative we are exposed to in the ‘west’.
Ditto Vanessa Beeley & her blog The Wall Will Fall…
I would hope that Bolton wanderers fans will be able to enjoy Carrs pastys at the Reebok after 5pm today…Bolton wanderers a founder member of the football league and in existence for 140yrs could be liquidated,and all down t the greed of Tory doner tax exile and cockney wide boy Ken Anderson chairman slowly but surely asset striping the club and damaging the town…..Why mention on here,because this type of insane greed from the torys is slowly destroying the football clubs up and down the land…we even had to set up a foodbank for minimum wage employees not paid for months whilst this Tory tax exile holidayed on is private island and yacht……Torys?…same story next door in Bury…different Chairman same political greed!
Would be a brave move to ban foreign ownership, including tax exiles, but would be a better move to support community ownership through regional banks as in Germany and Spain,
No one in more debt than Barcelona and Real Madrid
Doug. We have a supportors trust.. But the finance not there!We were at the mercy of cosortiums and various local businessmen who were more interested in the Hotel attatched to the club… Basically theclub willnot survive in the cutthroat world of ruthless Championship and premiership football ⚽ many more famous old clubs will
be liquidated this year and the next…….sad and many employees will lose out again,and local small businesses fleeced by anderson will be way down the creditor list,Also the council and the police owed by this rogue chairman…..very sad day for Bolton town and club
Yes perhaps if we could close tax loopholes and close offshore tax havens (with partners) and tax the bloody rich more, a 1% financial translation tax instead of piddling 0.01% Robin Hood Tax, windfall taxes big businesses then we could fund some community stakes in football clubs (and community pubs too). When you think of the Premier League awash with cash this is even more heartbreaking.
But now mainly you can only see football on the TV in pubs but with a Labour Govt let’s demand 3,live matches a week on terrestrial TV from a range of divisions.
For the future we need more imagination in the arts and leisure too, is this what Neo-Liberalism has done to us?
Time to start dreaming again!
Make Art, Leisure and Sport Not War!
Twas always thus,
Can you remember Lord Westwood Chairman of Football League in the 70’s, eye patch and chairman of Newcastle United, when asked for £20,000 to keep club afloat he resigned and did a runner
Debateable where most spivs and thieves live these days, in the City of London or in Football
I keep hearing the same old bullshine about football being different to any other business, methinks not, look around the world for a better way to run our national game,
Harking back to the 70’s it was said if you were born in the North East you had twice as much chance of playing in Division 1
Or if you prefer the Bill Shankly quote
‘With two Scotsmen in your team you have a chance of winning everything, with 3 Scotsmen in your team you will win nothing’
It’s no good getting misty-eyed. The time when football was driven by local identity unsullied by big money is long gone. The sport is now *about* big money – which is why genuine and significant movement up and down the league is absent, and local talent largely irrelevant.
I’ve no interest in sport and I’ve never taken any particular pride in any of the places I’ve lived. These things just don’t compute.
What I find most odd is fans obsessing over ‘local’ teams that have no local players. To me that’s like fighting over whether my town’s Starbucks is better than yours.
Don’t be offended though – it’s not you, it’s me. Really.
I don’t watch soaps or ‘strictly’ either so I’m clearly a weirdo.