Labour MP Nick Brown's Christmas Card takes aim at Cameron, Rebekah Brooks, Grant Shapps (and a horse)
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A Labour MP’s Christmas card has taken aim at Conservative Chairman Grant Shapp’s post on Buzzfeed with a tongue-in cheek design.
Mr Nick Brown, MP for Newcastle on Tyne and former Chief Whip, sent the card round to his parliamentary colleagues and press gallery to “poke a bit of fun” at Mr Shapps.
Featuring Rebekah Brooks, David Cameron in a jumper and ex-met police horse Raisa, the caption is lifted from the title on Shapps’ Buzzfeed post and reads: “The Conservatives will keep you warm this winter.”
It then says ‘in your jumper.. in your stable.. in private.” On the back it says “Neigh.. too warm” above a picture of an uncooked burger moulded into the shape of a horse.
A spokesperson for Mr Brown told the Independent: “It’s become a tradition for Nick to give out tongue-in-cheek Christmas cards, normally on a contemporary political subject and what with the debate about energy recently, we thought we would poke a bit of fun at Grant Shapps post on Buzzfeed. The horse has been a political issue recently as has David Cameron’s ‘jumper gate’ and Rebekah Brooks. It’s really just for people in the Westminster bubble who will appreciate the humour of it.”
It’s not just in Westminster that Grant Shapps’ buzzfeed post was made fun of. After his user-submitted post on Buzzfeed, Twitter users began suggesting what other lists the Conservative HQ could put their wits to producing with the hashtag #ToryBuzzFeed. These included "16 ways to tell the difference between deserving and undeserving poor" as well as "11 Kittens that Ralph Miliband has killed" and from John Prescott: "1 reason why the Tories should stay away from social media."
Jumpergate was a further political backfire for the Tories. With energy prices dominating the headlines after British Gas hiked its prices, Energy Secretary Ed Davey was asked whether people should wear jumpers. He dodged the question, but that didn’t stop headlines shouting: ‘Conservatives tell people to wear jumper to save on energy bills’. The Prime Minister’s spokesperson compounded the issue by saying on the matter of jumper-wearing: “If people are giving that advice, that is something that people may wish to consider.” Downing Street was forced to issue another statement clarifying the matter and saying any suggestion the Prime Minister had been telling people to wear jumpers was “mischief-making.”
Poor police horse Raisa has also been exhumed to mock the Conservative Party. The horse gained notoriety during the Leveson inquiry, when David Cameron confirmed he did ride a horse which police lent to former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks. Horse jokes quickly became a hot topic on Twitter during the proceedings with a parody Twitter account sent up for the horse. The ‘horse’ itself appeared to acknowledge the damage the revelations were doing to the Prime Minister, tweeting “pressure mounting” and “God some people are just foal of it.”
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