His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman appeared to suggest that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should be publicly lynched shortly after writing that the country must “get rid of him” as “finally as possible”.
The left-liberal atheist, noted for his hatred of C. S. Lewis’s children’s books — “blatantly racist”, “monumentally disparaging of women”, and “propaganda in the cause of the [Christian] religion”, in his estimation — wrote in a now-deleted Tweet: “When I hear the name ‘Boris Johnson’, for some reason the words ‘rope’ and ‘nearest lamp-post’ come to mind as well.”
The tweet comes shortly after the Prime Minister announced he would be proroguing (temporarily suspending) Parliament for a few weeks.
The practice of hanging public figures from lamp-posts first gained political currency during the French revolution, where the phrase “À la lanterne!” — “to the lamp-post!” — became synonymous with mob justice.
Some hours went by before, following substantial backlash, the author finally clarified — or recanted — his remarks, tweeting ” I don’t advocate hanging Boris Johnson” and claiming that events had “aroused my anger to the point where I temporarily lost my judgement”.
He described his outburst as a “tactical error” — rather than “wrong” — but added: “I don’t apologise for the anger I feel; only for its intemperate expression.”
Pullman’s graphic lamp-post tweet — which Twitter does not appear to have sanctioned as of the time of writing, despite it seeming to violate the social media platform’s rules on threatening or encouraging violence — followed another tweet on the decision to prorogue, in which he said: “The ‘prime minister’ has finally come out as a dictator. I’ve had enough of being outraged. We must get rid of him and his loathsome gang as soon and as finally as possible.”
What getting rid of the Prime Minister “as finally as possible” entailed was not specified, although a lamp-post lynching would certainly result in a decisive and permanent end to his premiership.
The 'prime minister' has finally come out as a dictator. I've had enough of being outraged. We must get rid of him and his loathsome gang as soon and as finally as possible.
— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) August 28, 2019
The outburst from the famous children’s author came as part of a furious outpouring of rage from anti-Brexit campaigners, heavy on accusations of dictatorship in the United Kingdom, and even claims that a coup is underway.
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