This week’s story about Boris Johnson’s
alleged weekend trip to Italy turns out to be fake
news. It seems that a PR person at the airport simply got a bit confused
between Boris Johnson and Tony Blair. Easily done, I suppose, although not
exactly something which is likely to make either of them feel flattered. The
story rapidly gained currency, partly because it came from what appeared to be
a reputable source, namely the airport’s PR office. It was also entirely
believable that Johnson would just go off for a weekend in the middle of a
crisis, and that he would lie about it afterwards. After months of non-stop lies, Downing Street’s
immediate denial probably did more to boost the story’s credibility than to
undermine it. I suspect that an awful lot of people in some sense wanted to
believe it, anyway – as a sort of confirmation of their view of the man’s
character, unreliability, and dishonesty.
Today’s shock headlines should really read
“Downing Street caught out telling the truth”; that’s surely the most newsworthy
part of the story. How will he ever live it down?
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