After all Lee Anderson’s quips about snowflakes, the thin-skinned and thick-headed Reform MP showed his true colours last weekend when he was triggered by a joke about party leader Nigel Farage on the Twitter account of Have I Got News For You?
Anderson replied with a threat aimed at the BBC, which screens the popular news quiz: “When we’ve sorted border control out we’re coming for YOU next. That’ll save us a few billion a year.” Yet the account’s bio states: “This account is run by Hat Trick, who make HIGNFY. The BBC have asked us to point out it’s nothing to do with them; the Twitter feed that is, not the TV show.”
Another Reformer with the Beeb in his sights is Rupert Lowe, who has unveiled a typically idiotic plan to reform the company. “If it were up to me, I’d defund the BBC tomorrow. Make it a subscription service. A tenner a month, or whatever they think they can get away with,” he wrote at the weekend.
Perhaps the fee could be £14.13 per month – which is the extremely reasonable amount we currently pay for the license fee?
Lowe added: “Let’s be fair – the BBC hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory in recent years. There seems to be a disproportionate amount of miscreants in their ranks.”
Yet despite several high-profile cases, 20% of all BBC staff are not former prisoners who were jailed for repeatedly kicking their ex-girlfriends in an assault outside a nightclub. Unlike one-fifth of Reform MPs, in the shape of South Basildon and East Thurrock’s James McMurdock – a truly disproportionate amount of miscreants in their party’s ranks.
In spite of gaffes like these, Lowe is said to fancy himself as a future Reform leader should some mishap – or even a job with Donald Trump – cause Nigel Farage to step down. But an outsider might also be in the frame – either Tory MP Suella Braverman, who is said to be close to defecting and whose husband Rael has already done so, or shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, a longer shot to swap parties but one who is about to bolster his profile with a new role as a regular correspondent on GB News.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives don’t need to be in power to have terrible ideas. Alongside Margaret Thatcher Xmas baubles (which have “Ho ho ho, No no no” on them), fundraisers are trying to persuade the dwindling party faithful to splash out £25 on Christmas jumpers which feature the Tories’ tree logo in white, alongside reindeers and snowflakes.
There is only one problem. One amused MP says: “It’s a lovely design, but not even at Christmas are you going to see me in a jumper that’s predominantly Labour red.”
