The British media, which has a tradition of pulling April Fools’ Day hoaxes on its readers, lived up to its reputation this year, too.
The Guardian this morning ran an “exclusive”, quoting “sources close to official figures”, which claimed that the royal house was planning to make a dramatic intervention in the referendum debate. It had chosen, according to the report, Prince Philip, the Queen’s 95-year old husband, with his “impeccable European credentials, strong affinity with the continent and the character to speak out”, as its spokesperson to announce that the royal family supports Britain staying in the EU.
The Daily Mail reported that it could “exclusively reveal” that actress Olivia Colman is set to make history as the first woman 007. The gag sounds almost plausible. Ms. Coleman is widely acclaimed for her role as Angela Burr, an intelligence operative who stars in the recently concluded and highly watched television version of The Night Manager , a popular spy thriller by John Le Carre. Ms. Coleman plays the role of the ex-secret intelligence service chief Leonard Burr in the book — surely but a short step-up to becoming the first female James Bond.
The joke was on Boris Johnson, the colourful Mayor of London, in two news outlets. The Independent ran a story saying his plans to tarmac over Britain’s canals to create a country-wide “cycle superhighway,” if he became Prime Minister, had conservationists up in arms.
The Metro reported that Mr. Johnson, author of the London’s scheme of hired cycles (called ‘Boris Bikes’) has plans to unveil a scheme for hover boards, or ‘Boris Boards’, for hire before he steps down as Mayor.
The Times ran a story to reveal that students at Imperial College and King’s College wanted to rename the institutions as Gaia College and Citizen’s college, respectively, in a bid to quash “historical and structural racism and sexism that cause daily micro-aggressions to students of colour and those who self-identify as female”.
The Times report, quoting one “Frederick Chetwynd-Talbot, president of the King’s college Indigenous Peoples Society, says: “He [Mr. Chetwynd-Talbot ] argued that while he did not know which king “was behind King’s College”, “it is pretty certain he was a cisgender white man who oppressed someone.”
However, student activists pressing for renaming historical buildings tainted by a colonial/racist past in campuses across the country may not find this joke, with its racist-sexist overtones, funny.
