Boris Johnson praises Peppa Pig and loses place in rambling speech

Boris Johnson criticised the creativity of civil servants for not conceiving of the children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig, as he gave a rambling speech to business leaders in north-east England in which he also compared himself to Moses and imitated the noise of an accelerating car.

Speaking at the annual Confederation for British Industry conference, the prime minister meandered through a variety of topics – confirming the announcement trailed overnight by Downing Street that new regulations for developers will force them to install electric vehicle charging points and heralding the start of a new green industrial revolution.

However, he also became distracted at points, asking business executives to raise their hand if they had been to Peppa Pig World in Hampshire, where he reportedly took his son, Wilf, with wife Carrie over the weekend.

“The government cannot fix everything, and government sometimes should get out of your hair,” Johnson insisted, claiming that “the true driver of growth is not the government” but in fact the private sector, whose energy and originality he praised.

To illustrate this, Johnson explained: “Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World. Hands up if you’ve been to Peppa Pig World!

“I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place. It has very safe streets, discipline in schools, heavy emphasis on new mass transit systems. Even if they’re a bit stereotypical about about Daddy Pig.”

Turning his fire on the BBC and Whitehall, Johnson continued: “But the real lesson for me was about the power of UK creativity. Who would have believed that a pig that looks like a hairdryer or possibly a Picasso-like hairdryer, a pig that was rejected by the BBC and has now been exported to 180 countries with theme parks both in America and China as well as as well as in the New Forest – is a business that’s worth at least £6bn to this country – and counting.

“Now I think that is pure genius don’t you? No government in the world, no Whitehall civil servant, would conceivably have come up with Peppa.”

Johnson also talked about his first experience of electric vehicles, which he said he tested as motoring correspondent for GQ magazine, at which point he imitated the sound of an accelerating car.

The prime minister recalled one looked like a “wheeled rabbit hutch”, while the other was the first Tesla for sale in the UK – though he said they both looked “unused outdoor gym equipment”. However Johnson heralded the emergence of electric vehicles, proclaiming: “The tipping point has come.”

At one point, he lost his place during the speech and spent 20 seconds repeating “forgive me” as he shuffled the printed pages on his podium into some semblance of order.

Johnson also compared himself to Moses, for coming up with a “10-point plan” for helping businesses invest in tackling climate change. He described it as “a new decalogue that I produced exactly a year ago” – and added: “When I came down from signing it, I said to my officials, the new 10 commandments were that “thou shalt develop” industries like offshore wind, hydrogen, nuclear power and carbon capture.

Shambolic … :roll_eyes:

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Turning his fire on the BBC and Whitehall, Johnson continued: “But the real lesson for me was about the power of UK creativity.

Who would have believed that a pig that looks like a hairdryer or possibly a Picasso-like hairdryer, a pig that was rejected by the BBC and has now been exported to 180 countries with theme parks both in America and China as well as as well as in the New Forest – is a business that’s worth at least £6bn to this country – and counting.

Genius!

He certainly has a creative mind when trying to connect with his supporters.
It isn’t all bad, I must say. Once a person understands a personality, then you can appreciate the delivery of the message. :slightly_smiling_face:

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He may be “exaggerating”:

On 31 December 2019, Hasbro acquired Entertainment One, including the Peppa Pig franchise, for a 3,800,000,000 US$ (£2,800,000,000) deal.

Global retail revenue of Peppa Pig 2015-2019

Published by Emma Bedford, May 17, 2021

In 2019, the Peppa Pig brand generated about 1,350,000,000 U.S. dollars (£1,010,000,000) in retail sales worldwide. Retail sales of Peppa Pig fall into the licensed merchandise industry.

Hi

I intensely dislike Boris, he does have his good points however.

I simply could not vote for Corbyn, Abbott or Lamy.

Shambolic? It was a bloody car crash - and that’s from a Boris lover.

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He is such a show up now, what the hell’s he on?

Wouldn’t it be great to have a leader with a bit of gravitas and decency we could be proud of and trust in these scary times?

Instead we’ve got a dishonest, self serving oaf droning on about Peppa Pig! :pig:

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The man is losing the plot, honestly. That meeting was horrendous, and embarrassing to think he is “leading” the country. :frowning: He is a laughing stock.

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I know nothing about Peppa Pig but research reveals that prior to 2019, Peppa Pig was owned by a Canadian company, Entertainment One, which itself was taken over by an American company, Hasbro, so it’s likely that much of the “earnings” from Peppa Pig no longer stays in the UK.

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Peppa Pig is just about his intellectual level.

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Its also the cartoon which some ethnic minorities wanted banned because it was offensive to them. :woman_shrugging: So given the amount of voters that BJ has now turned away by mentioning PP and saying its basically the next best thing to sliced bread…well…

image

Daddy BJ … :open_mouth:

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:joy:

Oh my word!!

Unfortunately though all that might possibly be how other countries regard the UK
and the UK electorate generally, when that would be far from the truth.
:thinking:

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Very Trump like.

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Oh come on Omah, you know you like him really. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Never mind Peppa Pig …even though only this last weekend he went there with Carrie and his mini nibs so it would still be fresh in his mind.

The first bit is bad enough when he can’t find his notes.

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You have to admire the man.

He loses his notes, makes no attempt to hide the fact, makes no attempt to continues as if nothing has happened, makes no apology, but soldiers on with a totally different kind of blah blah blah. Bravo.

No, I don’t … :man_shrugging:

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Well, I know you don’t. And I don’t most of the time.

But I admire him for the way he handled it.