Boris Johnson & the August 2011 riots. ‘It’s a chaotic scene’
On Saturday August 6th 2011 following the police shooting of Mark Duggan on 4th August in Tottenham and heavy handing policing of a protest a riot broke out on Tottenham High Rd. Protest and riots spread around the country in the days to come.
The Mayor of London at the time was Boris Johnson. A new account by David Cameron’s Comms man Craig Oliver has appeared in the Times.
Johnson was on holiday ‘thousands of miles with his wife in a massive RV. Johnson’s’ advisors suggested he could not return as he leave his wife, a distinguished lawyer, to drive the ‘unwieldy vehicle’. Hmmm
Dave Cameron returned overnight on the Monday on a military flight and chaired a COBRA security meeting on the Tuesday. Johnson still hadn’t returned.
Oliver notes that at the Wednesday COBRA meeting: ‘fifteen minutes in the door flies open and Johnson bursts in. His mop of blond hair is particularly messy and he is carrying a battered rucksack. For most of the time he stares straight ahead…
When the meeting finished Oliver looked at a TV screen ‘and Johnson is on the steps of the Cabinet Office. It’s a chaotic scene. He is surrounded by tourists and media taking pictures. Later he will be seen, brush in hand, helping with the clean-up’
Boris Johnson has been Prime Minister since July 2019
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