It has been just over two years since Boris Johnson’s Tory government won a majority in the House of Commons and to give you an indication of how well it is going the prime minister has been trolled by Ryanair for the best part of a week now.
That’s right – the budget Irish airline has taken an unusual approach to social media for a corporate account and, just like everyone else for the last week on Twitter, has been dunking on the British government and the Tories for the various Christmas parties (some confirmed, some alleged) that were hosted during Covid restrictions last year.
It’s not uncommon to see jokes and ridicules aimed at the government on Twitter but it’s not something that we expect to see from an airline account that we’d usually expect to see promoting cheap flights to the Netherlands.
However, Ryanair has been relentless for more than a week now and is showing no signs of letting up on the scandal surrounding the alleged parties.
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It started on 8th December when they posted a Love Actually meme featuring the prime minister.
Pisstake actually #downingstreetparty pic.twitter.com/oY8Dav6L3q
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 8, 2021
This has continued with memes about giant “weed” brownies, “carry on Boris baggage”, and Succession memes to name but a few.
This might fly in downing street but not in our planes... https://t.co/ioY3xfRdp5
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 9, 2021
More baggage for No.10. It’s turning into a comedy. So for a limited time, you can now purchase 10kg ‘Carry On Boris’ baggage on the Ryanair website. #Ryanair #CarryOnBoris #BoJo pic.twitter.com/GDVw1sGXTQ
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 9, 2021
Number 10 leaking #downingstreetparty to the media pic.twitter.com/EICESbL5cP
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 9, 2021
Things then really ramped up a notch when Ryanair posted a parody of the Covid alert levels which compared the stages of the outbreak to the stages of revelry at the alleged Downing Street party. that is currently subject to investigation.
The UK Covid Alert Level has been increased from Level 3 to Level 4 pic.twitter.com/7TTpwIDz98
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 13, 2021
They followed this with a tweet about Ant and Dec, who have routinely trolled the prime minister on I’m A Celebrity this year and one about Kim Kardashian who might be willing to be their legal representative should Ryanair end up in court.
our new Twitter interns started today after backpacking in Wales for the past few weeks. big fans of UK politics pic.twitter.com/BePLjfJKT0
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 13, 2021
Introducing the new member of our legal team who will deal with the aftermath of admins #downingstreetparty tweets. Congrats Kim, on passing the baby bar. pic.twitter.com/FvgiWBgPgY
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 13, 2021
It’s not just Johnson who has been on the receiving end of Ryanair’s tweets – the recently leaked pictures from another party held at CCHQ by Shaun Bailey’s campaign team was also given the meme treatment.
Bailey's at Christmas. Be rude not too. #downingstreetparty #toryaidesparty https://t.co/ujTxhKblb2 pic.twitter.com/0DFOoWHYBk
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 14, 2021
Some families will play solitaire others...well #ToryChristmasparty https://t.co/RbgVlPVLUf https://t.co/ujTxhKblb2 pic.twitter.com/GoEgXA2HzE
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 15, 2021
At the time of writing, the last meme that Ryanair has posted is one of the Daily Mirror’s political editor Pippa Crerar, who has broken the majority of the government’s Christmas party stories in the last month, who has been mocked up to look like TV detective Columbo.
The moment you know you're in deep deep trouble @PippaCrerar #downingstreetparty pic.twitter.com/o0pWzFVRlK
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 15, 2021
Ryanair’s relentless trolling of the government comes after their chief executive Eddie Wilson signed a joint letter to the government from a number of airlines about the response to the coronavirus.
It said: “As leaders of UK airlines, we are deeply concerned about the haphazard and disproportionate approach by government to travel restrictions following the emergence of the omicron variant.
“Whilst we fully recognise the need to take steps to contain the initial impact of the omicron variant, travel has been singled out with the introduction of disproportionate restrictions.
“Further, pre-departure and upon-arrival testing clearly add very little value to our Covid protection, but unnecessarily disrupt Christmas for families as well as businesses while severely damaging the UK travel industry. “
