(Bloomberg) --
National Lampoon’s 1978 movie “Animal House” stars John Belushi as a member of a hard-partying U.S. school fraternity house indulging in toga parties. Now U.K. leader Boris Johnson is using it as a guide to what is acceptable behavior to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Britons, the premier told The Sun newspaper on Thursday, should not report their neighbors for breaking a new “rule of six” limit on social gatherings -- unless they’re having “Animal House” parties with “hot tubs and so forth.”
The problem is that Johnson’s stance directly contradicts that of Home Secretary Priti Patel, who said Tuesday she would report rule breaches to the police -- and said even families who stop to talk in the street are breaking the law. Repeat offenders can be fined as much as 3,200 pounds ($4,100) under emergency legislation to try to contain the pandemic.
“I have never much been in favor of sneak culture, myself,” Johnson told The Sun, using a British schoolyard term for a tattletale.
The prime minister is known for putting a positive spin on events, a trait he’s tried to maintain during a pandemic that has left the U.K. with one of the highest death tolls in the world. In press conferences, he’s announced “moonshot” plans for rapid coronavirus tests and consistently played down the severity of new rules -- sometimes just moments after his officials have painstakingly explained them.
That approach has led to criticism that his government’s messaging has been confusing and increased pressure on local authorities and the police to interpret the rules -- and then reap the public backlash.
The prime minister’s spokesman was asked repeatedly on Thursday if the government still regards a group of seven people or more to constitute a risk to public health and should be prosecuted. He declined to reply.
John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said the police are still in the dark. “Maybe we should have ‘guidance,’ because we haven’t had any yet,” he told GMTV
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