BORIS Johnson is facing criticism for his latest column in the Daily Mail, in which he claims Britain is now “twinned with Orwell’s 1984”.
Writing for the newspaper, Johnson said we are living in a world where people “can be jailed for blurting something” on Twitter/X.
What’s perhaps more embarrassing for Johnson is that it was pointed out by journalist Adam Bienkov that many of those who were jailed for recent far-right riots in England and Northern Ireland were prosecuted under the Public Order Act 1986 – which was passed by former Tory PM Margaret Thatcher.
On Boris Johnson's claim that the prosecution of those who incited the riots means "Starmer's Britain is now twinned with Orwell's 1984"https://t.co/CQisxOP3Cy pic.twitter.com/cVi6T8EUwA
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) August 24, 2024
Johnson said: “We in this country pride ourselves on free speech. We wag our fingers – rightly – at regimes where they suppress that freedom.
“We believe that we are among the great global champions of the right to speak your mind, the right that is the foundation of creativity and progress.
“Well, we are now losing that reputation, under Starmer, around the world. Rival governments are seeing that ordinary British people are being jailed for a mistaken tweet, while serious and violent criminals are being let out early.”
The former prime minister further added that “the irony is not lost in places like Putin’s Russia”.
“The Labour government wants us to collectively start saying things about illegal immigration that we all know are false,” Johnson said.
“Welcome to Starmer’s Britain, twinned with Orwell’s 1984.”
It seems not everyone took Johnson’s comments too well, with Gerry Hassan writing on Twitter/X: “The usual irresponsible crap from Boris Johnson which he has excelled at all his adult life in the press.
“Writing in the aftermath of the riots in England, he says: ‘Welcome to Starmer’s Britain, twinned with Orwell’s 1984.’
“After years of Tory authoritarianism, just f*** off.”
Another user replied directly to Johnson (above) and described him as “the worst prime minister in British history” while a third joked: “He’ll be raging when he finds out he was prime minister and could have removed these laws from the statute book/or just not passed the,.”
“Orwell would have detested Johnson, both as a journalist and as a person,” said a fourth Twitter/X user.
