Boris Johnson’s mounting trouble is treasure for satirists

By JILL LAWLESS and JO KEARNEY
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Bad news for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been good news for political cartoonists and mockery-loving meme-makers. Satirists have reveled in the alleged hypocrisy of government leaders that held boozy social gatherings while the rest of the country was hunkering down under coronavirus restrictions. One recent newspaper cartoon showed Johnson who faces civil and criminal investigations as the betrayed Roman ruler Julius Caesar stabbed in the back with corkscrews. Political cartoonist Martin Rowson says mockery is one of the trade-offs in democratic societies between government and governed. He said “they have power and we have the right to laugh at them.”