Over the Christmas period, we’re republishing some of our lighter reading while the East Anglia Bylines editorial team take a much-deserved break. This article was first published in January 2022.
Yesterday evening, Conor Burns, Minister for Northern Ireland, was interviewed by Channel 4 News. He defended the latest allegation in the on-going PartyGate saga that as many as 30 people had celebrated the Prime Minister’s birthday in June 2020, with his wife, Carrie, supplying the cake. Burns’ defence was that Johnson had been working when people piled into his office to sing happy birthday. “He was,” Burns claimed with an entirely straight face, “in a sense, ambushed with a cake.”
Thus began what TV historian Greg Jenner described as “one of those glorious Twitter days” as the hashtag #AmbushedByCake began to trend. The best of this meme follows…
News of the birthday party – with cake – broke early on Tuesday evening.
An hour later, Channel 4 interviewed the hapless Conor Burns.
Nigella Lawson cooked up the perfect quip!
As did football pundit Gary Lineker.
Even Conservative MP for North Dorset, Simon Hoare, got in on the act.
Ryanair have been trolling Johnson for some time.
Scientists for EU founder and media commentator Mike Galsworthy trolled Conor Burns this morning.
There was plenty of wit…
Cartoons…
Clever memes…
Some were even inspired to write poetry.