For those who’ve not followed the general election, this week’s biggest story was PM Rishi Sunak bailing on the 80th Anniversary of D-Day to get on with his failing election campaign. Most people witnessed this spectacle and thought, ‘what a slimy, self-serving, shit‘. Laura Kuenssberg – Britain’s least insightful political expert – thought this:
BBC Newscast hosts downplay Rishi Sunak dodging D-Day.
"With prime ministers duty calls all the time and sometimes the duty isn't world leader stuff…"
"Prime ministers are trying to run the country as well as an election campaign, that's a challenge [Starmer] doesn't have" pic.twitter.com/uY0XBAQYq3
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 7, 2024
Since Sunak’s D-Day disaster, he’s received intense criticism from everyone – including his own party. Having received plenty of well-deserved criticism of her own, Kuenssberg has been forced to backtrack.
Sunak: reverse D-Day
D-Day marks when allied troops stormed the beaches of Nazi-occupied France. On the 80th anniversary, Sunak did the opposite of what those brave, young men did – by fleeing back across the channel. Kuenssberg later joined him in an act of sympathetic cowardice by fleeing from her own opinions.
In the Election Newscast episode above, Kuenssberg summed up the situation of Cameron standing in for Sunak as being “slightly awkward”. This was after defending Sunak leaving on the basis that world leaders sometimes have other things to do
We should say, he did make a speech today so it’s not like he was just there for five minutes and then disappeared. But you’re right, at some of the crucial… maximum moments of potent choreography it was David Cameron who was actually there in his place.
People looking at it from a more compassionate or respectful viewpoint might have used a phrase like ‘dignified moment of somber reflection‘ instead of ‘maximum moment of potent choreography‘. She continued:
For prime ministers, who are trying to run the country as well as run an election campaign, that is a challenge that they’ve got that actually the leader of the opposition doesn’t have.
To be clear, Sunak returned solely for his election campaign – not to ‘run the country’ as Kuenssberg suggested. Given that other world leaders managed more than a pop-in, her argument didn’t land:
https://twitter.com/Flying_Inside/status/1799010167188750477
https://t.co/szAApvSOmx pic.twitter.com/OgzHMVzoqV
— Tim Brannigan (@tim_brannigan) June 7, 2024
Last night my 82yo small c father-in-law simply could not believe Sunak no-showed to the D-day stuff, yet Kuenssberg and the Tory establishment in general are still making their excuses.
Soon, the most powerful wing of the Tories will in fact be the media. https://t.co/PT6ekEtnYD
— Joseph (@Jojosdojo) June 7, 2024
Kuenssberg wasn’t the only BBC figure drawing criticism either:
Yesterday, Laura Kuenssberg sought to excuse Sunak’s ill judged decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early.
Today, Chris Mason rushes on #r4today to basically say “he’s tweeted an apology, time to move on”.
These weak and sycophantic journalists are an embarrassment.
— Elwyn Davies (@TheRealElwynD) June 7, 2024
Kuenssberg’s backtrack ended up being inevitable as the situation became increasingly farcical:
Tory HQ and Number 10 categorcially deny Tory claims. He was always going to France, they say. “It was always in his programme,” says campaign. The discussion with the French was how long he would stay for. Decision was to attend the international ceremony and leave early.
— Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) June 7, 2024
Just when it seemed impossible that Sunak's D-Day fiasco could get any worse, there's this parting turd courtesy of the Times.
Sunak and his team consciously decided that he would skip out early because they saw it as the "French event".
Quelle connerie.https://t.co/6o1heh6JJ5 pic.twitter.com/6BtKpYnQ6i
— Edwin Hayward (@edwinhayward) June 8, 2024
Perhaps folks in Filey haven’t yet grasped the gravity of Sunak’s untimely departure from the D-Day commemorations @kevinhollinrake but it’s not going away. This from the Sunday Times. pic.twitter.com/rx4r4LQgaH
— Mike Tipping (@TippingsTipples) June 8, 2024
Mistakes were made
Kuenssberg changed her tune the day after D-Day:
Hard to imagine a worse campaign 'mistake' – keep up with busy day here…👇 https://t.co/glnjCh7D4f
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 7, 2024
Hard to imagine her saying this when she publicly found it hard to even call it a mistake.
So what changed?
Well, for one, the legion of unnamed Tory sources who have her on speed dial made their thoughts clear:
Some Conservatives spitting chips over D-day mistake which dominated start of the debate 👇🏼 https://t.co/kowJT1a0WD
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 7, 2024
After D-day blunder –
"It feels like Michael Foot in a donkey jacket at the Cenotaph", what is the Conservatives' choice?
"Lose your head, or get on with the campaign" –
What next after the Tories' bleakest moment so far?👇 https://t.co/wSUWX9MyH2— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 8, 2024
On 8 June, Kuenssberg published an ‘in depth’ piece titled:
Sunak’s shocking week makes Tory election fight even tougher
In the piece, she wrote:
In the frenzy of campaigns, just like in politics and life in general, everyone makes mistakes sometimes.
This one is almost impossible to fathom.
You literally fathomed it two days earlier. In fact, you were famously the one person who could fathom it.
She continued:
It wasn’t a split-second decision that went the wrong way, or a hot-mic moment like Gordon Brown’s grisly “bigoted woman” comment about Gillian Duffy back in 2010. It was a deliberate choice made in advance.
Sunak’s decision to miss some of the ceremony was always likely to cause diplomatic offence and upset veterans. And from a campaigning point of view, he was turning down some of the most powerful images any candidate could dream of, to be seen alongside the American President, the Royal Family and military figures.
His early departure meant he wasn’t part of a photograph of world leaders. Instead Foreign Secretary David Cameron was pictured standing alongside President Biden, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Again, she’s presenting this as obvious when it was anything but – not to her, anyway. The only thing she correctly identified to begin with was that Sunak missed out on a good photograph; she couldn’t anticipate the public reaction at all – almost as if she doesn’t understand or posses human emotions.
National embarrassments
As is to be expected, Sunak was expertly ridiculed by the British public:
Sunak : "The debt we owe every veteran of D-Day will never be forgotten"
Also Sunak :https://t.co/xVWhf7lRt3
— Russell England 💉💙🇪🇺🧳🌻🇺🇦🗿🌍 (@RussellEngland) June 7, 2024
Sunak deserves everything he gets, because he’s a national embarrassment. The same is true of Kuenssberg, but unfortunately she won’t be voted out of a job this time next month.
Featured image via BBC
