Bananas, smoke and mirrors – 18 brutally honest assessments of Boris Johnson’s reset speech
All eyes and ears were on Blackpool on Thursday, and not because of rides, donkeys or sticks of rock, but because that was the venue for what had been billed as Boris Johnson’s post-confidence-vote reset speech.
Busy day ahead – I’m going all the way to Blackpool to pretend I give a shit about northerners and poor people.
— Parody Boris (@Parody_PM) June 9, 2022
So this is the reset is it? It’s the seventh one as well. If the guy was a laptop he’d be in the skip by now.
— Tom Peck (@tompeck) June 9, 2022
Boris Johnson is doing a major speech to reset his leadership so expect a lot of measures to please Peppa Pig fans
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@davemacladd) June 9, 2022
He opened with a list of reasons why life now is better than it was when the Queen ascended the throne, took a detour through the Ukraine war, imaginary investments, an unworkable housing policy and alleged impending tax cuts, interspersed with more waffle than Birdseye makes in a year.
He may not have mentioned Peppa Pig this time, but he might as well have done.
"Why do we have a tariff of 93p a kilo on Turkish olive oil? Why do we have a tariff on bananas?"
Boris Johnson says the UK will use "Brexit freedoms" to revise regulations in order to cut costs for businesses and consumershttps://t.co/Jve2UITp1J pic.twitter.com/gPZYolwfhW
— Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) June 9, 2022
It wasn’t just the bananas that had people shaking their heads – false claims and the lack of a coherent policy and any focus whatsoever didn’t help.
1.
“We do not grow many olives in this country that I’m aware of… Why do we have a tariff on bananas?” asks Boris Johnson, 20 minutes into his speech, we were told was about housing.
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 9, 2022
2.
This speech was billed as big reset for Boris Johnson after his narrow no confidence win.
So far it's all over the place – tax, growth olives, bananas. Suspect it will offer little comfort to Tory MPs who feel Government lacks clear direction.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) June 9, 2022
3.
We go live now to the PM, who has broken off from a speech about housing and the economic crisis to bewail Britain's lack of a bananas and olives industry.
I'm not joking. 4 solid minutes on the lack of banana plantations in Blackpool.
From the Prime Minister.
No, really.
— Russ Jones (@RussInCheshire) June 9, 2022
4.
Wonderful speech just now from Boris – Mortgage lending for poor people, tax cuts not imminent, something about Brexit… and…um…bananas #boris #BorisJohnson #housing
— Matilda Thorpe (@tillythorpe) June 9, 2022
5.
If there was any actual policy detail or any costed plan, among all the burbling about Turkish olives, bananas, and Margaret Thatcher, I must have missed it.
PM just took 55 minutes to announce a consultation. ~AA
— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) June 9, 2022
6.
Boris Johnson has now been talking for 10 minutes and has yet to say anything new
— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) June 9, 2022
7.
Only @BorisJohnson can try to shoehorn a long riff about Ukraine into a speech advertised as being about the UK housing crisis.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) June 9, 2022
8.
Boris Johnson:
"I built more than 100,000 affordable homes in London in my time as mayor"
94,001 affordable London homes were built 2008 – 2016.
63,222 of these were built under the National Affordable Homes Programme – a Labour govt scheme which Johnson had no influence over. pic.twitter.com/FkT8QCFP9n
— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) June 9, 2022
9.
Phew! Who worries about fuel at £8 a gallon (imperial, natch) when we can take something off the price of bananas?
— 48 Crash (@48_Crash) June 9, 2022