Stephen Fry asks people to ‘weep for Britain’ in scathing attack on government
Stephen Fry said people should “weep for Britain.” (Jack Taylor/Getty)
Stephen Fry said people should ‘weep for Britain’ after the news that the UK parliament will be suspended for five weeks before a Brexit decision is made.
Fry wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, August 28: “Weep for Britain. A sick, cynical brutal and horribly dangerous coup d’état. Children playing with matches, but spitefully not accidentally: gleefully torching an ancient democracy and any tattered shreds of reputation or standing our poor country had left.”
Weep for Britain. A sick, cynical brutal and horribly dangerous coup d’état. Children playing with matches, but spitefully not accidentally: gleefully torching an ancient democracy and any tattered shreds of reputation or standing our poor country had left.
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) August 28, 2019
Fry posted the tweet on the same day that the Queen approved Boris Johnson’s plan to have parliament suspended in the run-up to Brexit, meaning that MPs will have their time to stop a no-deal Brexit significantly cut.
According to the BBC, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said: “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of [suspending Parliament] now would be to stop [MPs] debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country.”
A petition to stop parliament being prorogued has already been signed more than 1.5 million times.
Stephen Fry compared the government to “children playing with matches.” (Mike Marsland/Getty Images for SeriousFun)
Responses to Stephen Fry’s tweet ranged from thanking Boris Johnson, to calling him an “incompetent bully”.
Responses to Fry’s post, which has so far been retweeted 34,000 times, were heated between Leave and Remain voters.
We’ve been weeping for 3 years while parliament tried to overturn the will of 17.4m people. It’s tears of joy today. Thank you Boris for restoring my faith in democracy.— GrumpySteve (@grumpysteve47) August 28, 2019
One pro-Brexit Twitter user said: “We’ve been weeping for 3 years while parliament tried to overturn the will of 17.4m people. It’s tears of joy today. Thank you Boris for restoring my faith in democracy.”
@BorisJohnson is an opportunistic, incompetent bully on the verge of destroying the United Kingdom. He will inflict more damage than WWII, but WWII was a necessary fight. This will bring only ignominy and suffering that will last generations. And all totally unnecessary. Alas.— Scary Whitta (@garywhitta) August 28, 2019
While another said: “Boris Johnson is an opportunistic, incompetent bully on the verge of destroying the United Kingdom. He will inflict more damage than WWII, but WWII was a necessary fight. This will bring only ignominy and suffering that will last generations. And all totally unnecessary. Alas.”
