1. Jo Swinson the squirrel killerThe Lib Dems didn’t achieve much this year but at least leader Jo Swinson can lay claim to being the victim of the year’s weirdest
fake news scandal.
In November she was forced to deny that she had a side gig in murdering squirrels after doctored images claiming to show an article on the Mirror’s website were shared thousands of times across
Twitter and
Facebook, including by a number of pro-Brexit and
Brexit Party groups.Oh well, at least she had a sense of humour about the whole affair.Christmas card, 2019 🐿 😉#MerryChristmaspic.twitter.com/lFzzu3WSj3— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) December 23, 20192. David Cameron talks to a tree on live TVNo further information required tbh.3.
Boris Johnson hides in a fridgeRather than face public scrutiny in the run-up to the general election, Boris Johnson went to some extraordinary lengths to avoid taking journalists’ questions.
This was encapsulated perfectly just this month when he was ambushed by Jonathan Swain, a reporter from ITV’s Good Morning
Britain (GMB), who asked him to live up to his promise to give an interview to the programme.Our @SwainITV has located Boris Johnson, who's doing a milk round this morning, to see if the PM will finally speak to @piersmorgan and @susannareid100.It looks promising. Watch this space... pic.twitter.com/ndNJ67tmco— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) December 11, 2019One of Johnson’s aides can then be seen saying “oh for f***s sake* while GMB co-host Susanna Reid remarks about the “look on his face”.
Johnson is then asked by Swain: “Why don’t you have five minutes? You’re live on Good Morning Britain, I’ve got Piers [Morgan] and Susanna with me.”
Johnson replied: “I’ll be with you in a minute,” before being ushered into a walk-in fridge.4. Will Self’s death stare at Mark Francois Writer Will Self and Tory MP Mark Francois appeared nearly to come to blows in May over the only thing
British people seem to argue about anymore – Brexit, of course.
Just watch the escalating rage of Francois and the barely restrained glee of Self.Mark Francois: “A slur on 17.4m people...you should apologise on national TV....outrageous thing to say”Author @wself “You seem to find a lot of things outrageous...What I said was every racist and anti-Semite…probably voted for Brexit”#politicslivehttps://t.co/pVHd9QGUD9pic.twitter.com/XA1TXxuWCd—
BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 8, 20195. And while we’re on the topic of Mark Francois...This entire piece could have consisted solely of his travails this year.
Most notable, perhaps, was when he appeared to completely misunderstand the very nature of the country in which he lived to such a degree you’d be forgiven for asking if he even knows what his day job actually is.
Francois appeared on Sky News in October to extol the virtues of Brexit to host Adam Boulton, saying: “We want to live in a free country, that elects its own government, and makes its own laws, and then lives under those laws in peace.”
A perplexed Boulton interjected by saying: “We already are.” But Francois was not to be deterred, backing up his claim with the absolute solid argument of: “I don’t think we are.”Mark Francois - “We want to live in a free country, that elects its own government, & makes its own laws, & then lives under those laws in peace”Adam Boulton - "We already are” living in a free country. MF - I don't think we are. 🤔#alloutpolitics#politicslive#r4todaypic.twitter.com/Zoqe0Hbvkp— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) October 16, 2019HuffPost
UK understands that Mark is fully aware that he British, is currently in Britain and does in fact represent a constituency of Brits in the British halls of British political power.6. Labour’s Mark FrancoisThis is of course, Richard Burgon, who had so many terrible moments in 2019 it’s hard to narrow them down into a list that isn’t solely dedicated to him.
After much consideration, HuffPost UK has chosen an incredible interview with Kay Burley who with no effort whatsoever delivered a two-word mauling that left viewers in awe.❤️ @KayBurleypic.twitter.com/cYsJOLwYfI— John Stevens (@johnestevens) October 23, 2019It was in October when Burgon was calling for a general
election and the conversation went like this...Burley: “The polls say you won’t win.”Burgon: “The polls said we wouldn’t win last time.”Burley: “You didn’t.”
Oof.7. Boris busesNo, not those buses. The model buses that Boris Johnson makes in order to relax.
We’re not making this up. Just listen.WATCH: "What do you do to relax?"Boris Johnson: "I make things. I make models of buses." @talkRADIOpic.twitter.com/azQ35cpxDc— Ross Kempsell (@rosskempsell) June 25, 2019feel for the Boris campaign intern now desperately trying to make a convincingly amateurish cardboard bus— james (@Gilofthepeople) June 25, 20198. This spectacular Tory doorstep backfireLee Anderson, Conservative candidate for Ashfield, invited a news crew along to a spontaneous and definitely not planned stop while he canvassed ahead of the general election in November.
The video below is well worth watching in full but to suffice to say it was not spontaneous in the slightest and Lee probably regretted choosing a mate with such... strong views.this is more Thick Of It than the actual Thick Of It pic.twitter.com/E1No9i44f1— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) November 25, 20199. Terrifying limbless chickensFor some unfathomable reason, Boris Johnson saved his most absolutely batshit comments for the biggest stage of all – the UN.
“Your mattress will monitor your nightmares.”
“Pink-eyed terminators sent back from the future.”
“Punished by the gods.”
All things said by our actual PM. At the UN. Good lord. Here’s Michael Spicer’s take on it so at least you can laugh at it before the terrible reality sets in and you begin to weep.the room next door - Boris Johnson at the UNnow with subtitles by @vodathanpic.twitter.com/XqioGNrNek— Michael Spicer (@MrMichaelSpicer) December 11, 2019Happy new year, everyone.