Boris Johnson, Brexit’s cheerleader-in-chief, has said the UK’s exit from the European Union will be a “Titanic success”.
The Foreign Secretary drew comparisons to the ill-fated cruise liner, which sank when it crashed into an iceberg in 1912 on its maiden voyage, when presenting an award to George Osborne at the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards.
You can listen to the full speech here:
The line drew the inevitable derision from journalists attending the awards:
And beyond into the commentariat:
To be fair, Johnson was probably using ‘titanic’ to mean ‘monumental’ or ‘fantastic’, and quickly tried to correct himself.
He could also have been interpreting the Titanic’s history in the manner of Alan Partridge, who once noted:
“Oh yeah, people go on about Titanic, Titanic... Let me tell you something about the Titanic. People forget that on the Titanic’s maiden voyage there were over 1,000 miles of uneventful, very pleasurable cruising before it hit the iceberg!”