- Mocking bird - 28th October 2026
- Turning Japanese - 28th October 2026
During 23 years at the BBC, and 43 years in journalism, for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, the power of mockery was never underestimated, and today we could be about to see this in spades, as the Chancellor, John Healey, delivers his first budget.
It skewers pompous politicians, or unwise announcements.
I am talking, of course, about mockery.
We have had Liz Truss being compared to a lettuce, after her bizarre 49 days in power.
Here’s what happened.
On 14 October 2022 the Daily Star began a livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a framed photograph of Ms Truss, who had been appointed Prime Minister (PM) the previous month.
Indeed senior politicians like her, often come in for it.
Try this for size:
“The sluice gates of mediocrity opened. Before long the audience were up to their beaks in it, like chickens in a flash flood” – that was the Daily Mail’s verdict on a recent speech by Lucy Powell, the UK Education Secretary.
The Times description of Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was that he “looked and sounded, as he always does, like a smiley rural GP doling out cod-liver oil to old ladies” during his party conference speech in September.
But both got off lightly compared with the Conservatives’ shadow chancellor. “Even 20 minutes of Andrew Griffith can rip your soul in half”, the Guardian wrote: “Griffith proceeded to give the worst speech ever heard. Not just in content but in delivery. It was like watching a less sentient version of the PG Tips monkey”.
There was a lot of mockery too, after George Osborne’s ‘pasty tax’ (and surely John Healey wouldn’t be so stupid as to repeat THAT!). Mr Osborne faced particular ridicule by declaring that people could avoid the tax, by eating the pasty cold.
Here’s a reminder – it was a proposal in the 2012 budget to simplify the tax treatment of “hot takeaway food” so that Value-Added Tax (VAT) would be charged at 20 per cent in all cases.
The change would have increased the sale price of hot snacks such as sausage rolls and Cornish pasties sold on the premises where they were baked. It seemed perfectly sensible, but mockery soon followed.
When Mr Healey delivers his first budget this afternoon, he will care most about the responses of MPs, voters and the bond market.
However he will probably keep half an eye on the sketches, too, since a well-turned phrase in a sketch can dog a politician for the rest of their career.
Theresa May, while PM never managed to escape the nickname of “Maybot”, attached to her by the Guardian’s John Crace after a particularly robotic set of interviews about Brexit.
Indeed the mockery of Mr Healey began even before he stood up in the House of Commons (HoC). The Economist has compared him to football managers, and, quoting others, used the term “bald fraud”.
It said: ‘Even a bald fraud can prosper for a while. Some budgets mark sea changes; the one on October 28th will not, unless something goes badly wrong. Some money for defence will be found and lip service will be paid to growth. Should it go without a hitch, plaudits will come in anyway: “steady”, “solid”, “he looked the part”‘.
So watch out for the reaction to the budget.
Not just the analysis – but any mockery too!
The memories of Phil’s astonishing decades long award-winning career in journalism (when mockery of politicians abounded) as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
