Day: August 27, 2020

The prime minister’s address to the nation’s children as they prepare to return to classrooms was upstaged by Twitter tongues wagging over a school librarian with a sense of humour. As Boris Johnson told children at Castle Rock school in Coalville, Leicestershire, that exam results had almost been derailed by “a mutant algorithm”, eyes turned to the bookshelves behind him.

Lining the shelf just behind his head were titles with rather unflattering associations for any political leader, including “The Twits”, “The Subtle Knife”, “The Resistance”, and “Betrayed”.

And sticking out like a sore thumb was “Fahrenheit 451”, a dystopian novel about a society where books are banned.

If you look closely, “Guards! Guards!”, a Terry Pratchett novel, whose plot centers around a secret brotherhood to overthrow a corrupt patrician and install a puppet king.

Then comes “Hero.Com: Crisis Point” – part of an Andy Briggs series where “super powers carry super responsibilities”?

Did you spot “Glass Houses”? Granted, this one is a vampire novel. But could the famous proverb – “those who live in glass houses should not throw stones” – be a comment on Boris’ harsh criticism directed at the exam regulator?

And could Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”, famous for its heartbreaking line: “Please, sir, I want some more”, be tactically placed on Boris’ left to remind us of the government’s free school meals U-turn?

Somebody, perhaps, felt they had a story to tell the nation today. And all behind the PM’s back.