Thérèse Coffey’s cunning plan to weather the veg shortage is for Brits to eat turnips – 21 delicious reactions
As the UK faces a shortage of fresh produce, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Thérèse Coffey – has been doing everything in her power to solve the issue and to apologise for the failings that exacerbated the problems caused by bad weather in Spain and Morocco.
Oh no, wait – she’s been blaming it all on the weather and denying there are market failures in any food sector.
Batters, "Front page of every newspaper, salad shortages, Asda rationing."
Coffey, "We can't control the weather in Spain." pic.twitter.com/McaaPwYu0P
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) February 22, 2023
In the House of Commons, Coffey harked back to a time before imports and commercial greenhouses.
Therese Coffey, "A lot of people would be eating turnips right now, rather than lettuce and tomatoes." pic.twitter.com/fGpwJI2WvO
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) February 23, 2023
“It’s important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country.”
“A lot of people would be eating turnips right now, rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar.”
Turnips are one of the foods in shorter supply due to a lack of seasonal pickers coming over from the EU since Brexit.
The comment was like all Twitter’s birthdays arriving at once.
1.
Did anyone get "cherish a turnip" in Brexit Bingo?https://t.co/K46p1VTnsH
— Sathnam Sanghera (@Sathnam) February 23, 2023
2.
If anyone is interested we are currently in this scene from the simpsons https://t.co/agT8BO3MqN pic.twitter.com/WBL4S3ZbBm
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) February 23, 2023
3.
There's something rather beautiful about putting political lipstick on a turnip as a metaphor for this past decade.
— Stephen McGann (@StephenMcGann) February 23, 2023
4.
Marie Antoinette, 1789: "Let them eat cake"
Therese Coffey, 2023: "Let them eat turnip" pic.twitter.com/mCUDpTiZ8z— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) February 23, 2023
5.
"We asked 100 people to name something you use as a pizza topping.
You said Turnips…" pic.twitter.com/lWc0WzsGVd— Jon de Plume (@MrJonDePlume) February 23, 2023
6.
BREAKING: Green goddess Therese Coffey has said we should eat more homegrown turnips during the Brexit famine 😍 I can't help thinking "Let's eat turnips instead of tomatoes" would have been a brilliant slogan for the Brexit bus x
— Laura Kuenssberg beyond parody (@LKTranslator) February 23, 2023
7.
Due to a shortage of cucumbers, sex education classes in the UK will have to use turnips instead, which could lead to body confidence issues in boys.
— Matt Green (@mattgreencomedy) February 23, 2023
8.
TURNIPS AND TOMATOES ARE NOTHING LIKE EACH OTHER! This would be like if we ran out of Viennettas and were told "have you considered turnips instead…?" https://t.co/a8xlXpeqVH
— Sooz Kempner🐀 (@SoozUK) February 23, 2023
9.
"Now say eat more turnips!" pic.twitter.com/4wbVjHf55B
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) February 23, 2023
10.
Thérèse Coffey cocktail bar:
Bloody Mary = vodka & tomato juice with Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice celery, etc
Virgin Mary = tomato juice (with ditto)
Brexit Mary = sewage water and turnip juice (seasoned with bitter tears, and small hard turd and a baby turnip to garnish)— Militant Lambchop ✊🏼💙 NHS ✊🏼❤️ BLM #StaySafe (@CurlyClareToo) February 23, 2023
11.
— Craig Deeley 🇪🇺🏳️🌈 🇺🇦 (@craiguito) February 23, 2023