As the UK gears up for its July 2024 election, the country's candidates are taking to social media to convince Brits they should be the next person to run things — but some of them have grasped the art of posting better than others.
An example of how not to do it comes from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose most recent attempt at winning over the people of Britain has become the subject of widespread mockery over on X (formerly Twitter).
"You will always be better at spending your own money than the government is," Sunak wrote on June 11. The post is likely a reference to the Conservatives' promise to slash tax if reelected, but people took the opportunity to remind Sunak of the many ways his party has poured taxpayer money down the drain over the years.
For example, I never spent four billion pounds on unusable PPE. https://t.co/ubLFc3AFIa
— Adam Kay (@amateuradam) June 11, 2024
Can you recommend a good private police force to spend my money on? What about ambulances and fire engines? Am I permitted to start my own army now?
— Simon Patterson (@denkmit) June 11, 2024
When I was 16 I spent my £100 Christmas money on five DVDs and one was American Pie. Please spend my taxes on feeding hungry kids. https://t.co/ZzfICxOJjz
— Sooz Kempner (@SoozUK) June 12, 2024
Yes, but I can’t build 1/100,000th of a hospital and use it for treatment can I, you thundering moron? https://t.co/potkWGlS6P
— Nick Pettigrew (@Nick_Pettigrew) June 11, 2024
How are we, the public, meant to spend our own money on, for example, UK defence equipment better than the government?
— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) June 11, 2024
i think your wardrobe proves this is not true https://t.co/4Bp5Eyg1RM
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) June 11, 2024
But that's not the prime minister's only online embarrassment. Just a day before that poorly thought-out tweet, he'd posted another, which read: "If you're a criminal, the law should show you no mercy."
In Sunak's mind, the statement probably made him sound like a formidable, tough-on-crime contender for the UK premiership — but again, Brits saw it as little more than another chance to dunk on their leader.
https://t.co/D9qRVFx3EM pic.twitter.com/gR96g6B3qz
— Damon Evans (@damocrat) June 10, 2024
My bold proposal: make crime illegal https://t.co/PxoIP77wWJ
— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) June 10, 2024
Says the man fined for breaking the law twice. https://t.co/uXJJy5qVj2
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) June 10, 2024
If you’re a criminal, @RishiSunak and his pals have made it as easy as possible for you by slashing police numbers, cutting prosecutors, selling off courts, creating record backlogs, forcing victims to wait *years* for a trial and making the prisons too full to take any more. https://t.co/rrJUwDxETd
— The Secret Barrister (@BarristerSecret) June 10, 2024
What about if you defraud the UK for vast amounts of £££… but the Chancellor of the day shrugs it off?
— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) June 10, 2024
You put the guy who organised this party during lockdown in the Lords https://t.co/6RkZU6dn23 pic.twitter.com/jwzICOc3US
— Tom Hunter (@OneLifeStand87) June 10, 2024
At this point, it'd likely be better for Rishi Sunak's campaign if he simply ever used the internet again.
[Image credit: UK Government / Creative Commons]
