YOU would think the Foreign Secretary had more on his plate. Between ordering every British diplomat around the globe to obstruct Scottish ministers’ international engagement and visiting Japan for a G7 summit, he is a busy man.
But James Cleverly will always find time for the inane. He has plenty of experience with that after working in Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s governments.
But this time, it was Cleverly’s turn to make a fool of himself.
The Foreign Secretary, in Japan, representing the “whole” of the UK remember, tweeted to insult Scotland’s First Minister.
“We now go live to the Humza Yousaf press huddle,” Cleverly wrote, alongside a GIF of Simpsons character Sideshow Bob walking into rakes.
We now go live to the Humza Yousaf press huddle. pic.twitter.com/fv06aBRKaH
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) April 18, 2023
The tweet was not greeted kindly, with people asking how far the UK’s great offices of state have fallen.
“This is the calibre of people we have in one of the highest offices of state. Whatever the English for Frat Boy is,” LBC host Shelagh Fogarty commented.
Her colleague James O’Brien wrote: “The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. One of the United Kingdom’s four Great Offices of State. Our representative on the world stage. Posting Simpsons gifs about Scotland’s First Minister…”
And SNP depute leader Keith Brown wrote: “Presumably this made sense in someone’s head. That the ‘Right Honourable Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs’ thought it was a good idea, tells us where the Tories are at these days.”
Others branded the top Tory “infantile” and suggested it was time he “grows up”. One replied with a Family Guy GIF of clowns entering a building, quipping: "We now go live to Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting"
We now go live to Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting https://t.co/FhazeQ6vT2 pic.twitter.com/ncMz65aMFT
— Rik Ferguson (@rik_big) April 19, 2023
If there’s one thing to be said for Cleverly, at least he got the First Minister’s name right. That’s more than many in Westminster seem to be capable of.
