Boris Johnson praises Peppa Pig and loses place
in rambling speech
PM also compared himself to Moses and imitated noise
of car in speech to business leaders
Aubrey
Allegretti and Joanna Partridge
Mon 22 Nov
2021 12.42 GMT
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 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 Daddy Pig.”
The
“shambolic” speech was criticised by the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves. She
said it showed “how unseriously he takes British business” and the lack of a
government plan for growth, adding: “No one was laughing, because the joke’s
not funny any more.”
Richard
Swart, a senior executive at north-east-based manufacturing firm Berger Group,
told the Mirror the speech was “catastrophic” and “way below par for a prime
minister”.
He said
companies were “desperate for statesmanlike behaviour to help us navigate
through Covid, Brexit, labour shortages and other challenges we face” and that
it was time for the Conservatives to “focus on what’s good for the country and
choose more responsible leadership”.
Two other
businesspeople who were also in the room for the speech said they were
surprised by Johnson’s promotion of Peppa Pig World, located more than 300
miles from the Port of Tyne, where Johnson’s speech on promoting economic
opportunities in north-east England was held.
“It was
interesting that he asked a group of business leaders in the north-east if they
have travelled six hours down the road to Peppa Pig World and then talk about
levelling up,” said Michael Stirrup, chief executive of IT consultancy
Waterstons. “It shows a bit of a lack of understanding I think”.
“I wasn’t
expecting a Peppa Pig reference,” said Neil Whittaker, director of marketing
and communications at national training firm Learning Curve Group. “He seemed
to lose his way quite a bit.”
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 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 like
“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.
After
criticism from other Labour figures that the speech was a “clustercringe” and
“national embarrassment”, Johnson defended his performance in a short clip with
broadcasters.
He said: “I
think that people got the vast majority of the points I wanted to make, and I
thought it went over well.”
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 Ten commandments were that
“thou shalt develop” industries like offshore wind, hydrogen, nuclear power and
carbon capture.
Pressed on
the serious issues of apparent backtracks on social care reform and rail
investment, Johnson was deeply defensive.
Despite
being accused of “betraying” voters in northern England who helped him into
Downing Street, Johnson insisted critics of the plan to scrap the eastern leg
of HS2 and build no new line allowing trains to travel through Bradford between
Manchester and Leeds were “missing the point”.
He said the
government did not want to “just endlessly cast your way through virgin
countryside” and instead he favoured using existing tracks and bring them back
into service, adding: “We are doing the Beeching reversal.”
He said the
£96bn investment was “colossal” and added: “It’s not rowing back, it’s better.”
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