Boris Johnson says he’ll prove the safety of water cannons by being blasted with one
Oh god, this could be good.
Boris Johnson just told the Metropolitan Police to go ahead any buy themselves three second-hand water cannon trucks from Germany (the home of liberal democracy!) even though they haven’t been approved for use in the UK yet.
Because their safety (or lack thereof) is hotly debated, this is a controversial move. Fortunately for Boris lovers and haters everywhere, an LBC radio interviewer successfully goaded the Mayor into turning himself into a human test dummy.
“I’m certainly prepared to do anything to show that they’re safe within reason. I’m not quite sure whether I want to stand in front of a water cannon…”
But later he added: “OK. Man or mouse. Alright, you’ve challenged me to this. I suppose I’m going to have to do it now. I’m doing this unfortunately from off-base, so I can see all my poor press people are going to be tearing their hair out. Never mind, it’s got to be done. Thanks for that one, Ferrari!”
Hear the interview in full:
It’s the can’t miss event of the summer. Charity auction for the right to be the person who points the hose, anyone?
by Guy Parsons.
love this
Perhaps we could have a charity donation to relieve ourselves in the water tanks?
Can we substitute the water with petrol?
Reminds me of this scene from UHF:
[…] Alcalde de Londres demostrará la seguridad de los cañones de agua dejando que los prueben sobre é… […]
Standard pressure or specially lowered pressure for Mr Johnson?
Boris, try that when the outside temperature is -10 like they do in Slovakia.. And then tell us how did you feel about it.
An argument as to the safety of a riot control method is incidental, tasers are hardly ‘safe’ what should be the issue is why the UK feels the need to employ such riot control methods in the first place, a method grimly associated with suppression of civil rights protests in the USA in 1950s and 1960s. As yourselves why the government would wish to bring this here, not whether it is ‘safe’, whatever that suitably general term means in this case. Whether Boris Johnson is or isn’t sprayed by one is incidental, as it seems unlikely he will do so as part of a grievance towards a government, so the entire thing is meaningless, the best he can do is demonstrate it is not lethal, which we all know already. This machine is symbolic of the war on terror and concurrent reduction of liberty.
[…] many of you will be aware, yesterday on LBC Radio our dear Mayor Boris Johnson offered to be shot by a water cannon to prove how safe they […]
I bet Boris will be kitted out in full safety gear. I also bet the cannon operator will be told to ease down on the pressure and waft over him nice and gently. What guarantee do we have that he’ll get the full works?
[…] Backed into a corner, Johnson said “I’m certainly prepared to do anything to show that they’re safe within reason. I’m not quite sure whether I want to stand in front of a water cannon…” But later he added: “OK. Man or mouse. Alright, you’ve challenged me to this. I suppose I’m going to have to do it now. I’m doing this unfortunately from off-base, so I can see all my poor press people are going to be tearing their hair out. Never mind, it’s got to be done. […]
[…] many of you will be aware, our dear Mayor Boris yesterday on LBC offered to be shot by a water cannon to prove how safe they are. […]
[…] ★ Boris Johnson says he’ll prove the safety of water cannons by being blasted with one […]