Boris is a journalist. The Telegraph pays him around £250,000 a year mainly for his Monday morning missives. They're well written, clever in construction and often amusing. So the ex Mayor of London knows only too well what makes a headline in the world of media. Hyperbole does it. Horror does it. And Hitler certainly does it.
To invoke the name of the world’s most appalling mass murderer will generally result in negative consequences. And quite right too.
We seem to be living through a Hitler heat wave at the moment. That unknown Labour MP started it. Quite a few Labour Councillors were then discovered to have been fanning the flames for years. And then that other former London Mayor Ken Livingstone gave a radio interview during which he put a spin on World War 2 history that was worthy of the great Australian bowler Shane Warne himself.
Boris seems able to overcome most disasters in both his political and private life but he should have known that his carefully written proposition would be obscured by jumping onto the Hitler bandwagon.
Phineas T. Barnum coined the bandwagon phrase in the mid-19th century. It takes a showman to know a showman.
It all boils down to a very simple rule in understanding how the media works. And it's this:
If you don't want to say anything that may be misconstrued – then, surprise surprise, don't say it.
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