Ian Hislop points out an unfortunate mistake in Lee Anderson’s St George’s Day post | indy100

Ian Hislop points out error in Lee Anderson video

BBC

Lee Anderson, the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party who defected to Reform UK last month because - among other things - he “[wants] my country back”, has been ridiculed online for comments made during this year’s St George’s Day.

In a Tweet accompanying a video posted to Twitter/X on Tuesday, Anderson wrote: “Trigger Warning. If you are a Guardian reading, advocado [sic] eating, Palestinian flag waving, Eddie Izzard supporting Vegan [sic] then this clip is probably not for your consumption.

“Happy St George’s Day!”

The clip itself, meanwhile, sees the Ashfield MP point to his England flag cufflinks and say: “Look at these here, look, flag of St George. It’s St George’s Day today, and this country of ours has been a gift to the world.

“Look at the industrial revolution, culture, arts, music, sports - everywhere you look on this planet, you see some of that.

“Oh, by the way, happy birthday William Shakespeare.”

Except, ever quick to point out the comedy in the actions of UK politicians, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop noted a pretty big problem with Anderson taking aim at “Palestinian flag waving” vegans during the April 26 episode of BBC's panel show Have I Got News for You.

He said: “[Anderson] had St George cufflinks and he said, ‘this is one in the eye for all you avocados and Palestinian flag wavers’, and I was thinking, ‘St George came from Palestine’.”

Indeed, English Heritage itself notes in its own article “nine things you didn’t know about St George” that the patron saint of England was born in what’s now known as Turkey (it was called Cappadocia in the third century) and died in Palestine in 303 AD.

We also share our patron saint with countries such as Georgia and Ethiopia.

All of these facts make things a bit awkward for Anderson, who was also mocked over the tweet containing a misspelling of the word ‘avocado’:

@LeeAndersonMP_ Nor is it for literate humans.
— (@)

@LeeAndersonMP_ Advocado? Check spelling and common decency next time. Or, preferably, just go away.
— (@)

@LeeAndersonMP_ Advocado? Check spelling and common decency next time. Or, preferably, just go away.
— (@)

@LeeAndersonMP_ "Advacado" \ud83d\ude00\nLearn to use our language correctly!
— (@)

@LeeAndersonMP_ Trigger Warning\n\nSt George is also the patron saint of Palestinian Christians\n\nhttps://t.co/iPfgsCiqtZ
— (@)

@LeeAndersonMP_ Errrrrr wasn't St George from Palestine, where they eat a lot of avocados?
— (@)

@LeeAndersonMP_ Your policies have made English people poorer & sicker and humiliated us on the world stage.\n\nWe'll get our national pride back when your lot have ****ed off for good!\n\nHappy St George's day!\nhttps://t.co/DYAL3FnUID
— (@)

St George is also the patron saint of Palestine, making England and Palestine sister nations.
— (@)

Dressed like a toddler at a wedding
— (@)

It’s not the first time that a different take on the word ‘avocado’ has made headlines, as back in 2022, online personality Salt Bae raised eyebrows with his unusual way of pronouncing the name of the fruit.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.