Boris Johnson’s inaccurate claim about pork pies got the response you’d expect
After Downing Street complained about Channel 4 describing the Prime Minister as “a known liar”, you’d think Boris Johnson might have made extra efforts to be accurate, yet this comment he made at the G7 summit suggests otherwise:
“Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are sold in Thailand and in Iceland, are currently unable to enter the US market because of, I don’t know, some sort of food and drug administration restriction.”
BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme checked out his statement by interviewing someone who would surely have all the facts straight, the Chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association.
Chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association @MeltonMatthew says his pies are not sold in Thailand or Iceland. Boris Johnson claimed they were sold there but not in the US, when he was giving an example of an American trade restriction #r4today https://t.co/o4I0km5T04 pic.twitter.com/qAeOFjXLr3
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) August 26, 2019
It seems that, although a small number of the pies were sold to those markets many years ago, the company had long since realised that their shelf life made them unsuitable for export, including to the US, and had prepared them solely for the UK market.
There was, of course, an obvious joke, which quite a few people made.
Boris telling porkies…about pork pie exports? https://t.co/x94taAJaUc
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) August 26, 2019
Boris Johnson is telling porky pies about porky pies!#MeltonMowbray https://t.co/cUDW9HFQqR
— Liz Needham 🔶🇪🇺🌍🇮🇪 (@lizneedhamSTAR) August 26, 2019
The Johnson telling pork pies, nothing new there….
— Rebel Alliance #FBPE #revokeA50 (@ChrisHa33342711) August 26, 2019
Not everybody made that joke – there were plenty of other things to be said about it.
This was a genuinely informative interview. I hadn’t realised that US preferences were strongly against that kind of branding. That Johnson was winging it and more or less 100% wrong was less of a surprise. https://t.co/7G3FrFZPkw
— David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) August 26, 2019
The BBC should learn not to publish our charlatan’s Prime Minister words until they fact checked them. I know, this means we will never hear from him again, but this is a price I am willing to pay.
— Catio Miles (@CatioMiles) August 26, 2019
I know this is one of those 'Oh, that Boris!' (no surname required) pieces meant to add a bit of gaiety to the nation but the fact is he is a professional liar who, via his 80s Telegraph column, churned out the Euromyths which set us on course for the current shit fest. #r4today
— paulusthewoodgnome (@woodgnomology) August 26, 2019
The incident inspired Twitter user Sue Marsh to make this response.
Never trust a man that can't even be honest about pies. https://t.co/8D39Ezr2Gl
— Sue Marsh (@suey2y) August 26, 2019
Sounds like good advice.
Source: BBC Images: Guardian, GBBO, screengrabs
Read more: https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/08/23/everything-about-this-french-newspapers-boris-johnson-cartoon-is-perfect/
