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A little story of how the Johnson - Xavier Better press conference can go so wrong...
A thread stitching together circumstantial evidence and some personal experience dealing with this sort of thing in the past
A thread stitching together circumstantial evidence and some personal experience dealing with this sort of thing in the past
** The Start **
End of last week the idea emerges that Juncker will meet Johnson for a working lunch in Luxembourg
Idea is floated to add on a bilateral with Luxembourg PM Bettel, and to do a Press Conference
End of last week the idea emerges that Juncker will meet Johnson for a working lunch in Luxembourg
Idea is floated to add on a bilateral with Luxembourg PM Bettel, and to do a Press Conference
Note I do not know whose idea the Press Conference was - either UK or Luxembourg's - but it would have been agreed by both sides
Also note there was *no* press conference with Johnson and Juncker (or Barnier)
Also note there was *no* press conference with Johnson and Juncker (or Barnier)
** The Plan **
Officials on both sides will then have worked on the timings and the plan for the venue for the press conference, and meantime press interest grew - 140 journalists were present in Luxembourg today apparently
Officials on both sides will then have worked on the timings and the plan for the venue for the press conference, and meantime press interest grew - 140 journalists were present in Luxembourg today apparently
The problem - as @JamesCrisp6 & @dannyctkemp explain - is that the Luxembourg PM's offices and press room are not large or spacious...
So do it outside in the courtyard
So do it outside in the courtyard
** The Day Itself **
Then - as press interest peaked - so too did interest of protestors, who - despite being rather limited in number, made quite a din.
Then - as press interest peaked - so too did interest of protestors, who - despite being rather limited in number, made quite a din.
Johnson then heard this, and knowing that the Press Conference was due to take place outside - where all journalists could be present rather than just a few in the tiny press room - got his people to push to change location.
At the last minute.
At the last minute.
As anyone who has ever tried to organise something like this will know, when hulk sized politician ego meets immovable object of wiring, cameras, room size... and at the last minute, there is often nothing that can be done.
More in this thread:
More in this thread:
If Johnson's people were actually political pros they could have foreseen all of this. Hiring a larger room somewhere would have been an option.
Ruling out doing a press conference would have been another option. But the problems were raised too late when nothing could be done.
Ruling out doing a press conference would have been another option. But the problems were raised too late when nothing could be done.
So press conference has to happen, in a courtyard with protestors making noise outside... and Johnson flounces off
He then gives an interview to the BBC to try to defend himself, and his people spin to Kuenssberg (BBC) and Dunn (The Sun) that this was the Luxembourgers' fault
He then gives an interview to the BBC to try to defend himself, and his people spin to Kuenssberg (BBC) and Dunn (The Sun) that this was the Luxembourgers' fault
** The End **
All of this would have been eminently avoidable.
Johnson could have done the press conference against the background noise and survived. Or his people could have planned the whole thing better.
Instead it all made him look like a 🐓
All of this would have been eminently avoidable.
Johnson could have done the press conference against the background noise and survived. Or his people could have planned the whole thing better.
Instead it all made him look like a 🐓
