The Londoner: Mixed results for Dilyn on the doorstep

The festival of gratitude for Corbyn | 'Regular Nonce' Boris Johnson | Strictly champ at Red Shoes party | Illusionist Uri Geller takes credit for Conservative win
16 December 2019

The Conservatives may have walked the election but what effect did their secret furry weapon have? Dilyn the dog, Boris Johnson’s canine friend, delivered a mixed bag of results, despite repeatedly hitting the campaign trail.

Dilyn, alongside Johnson’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds, made a total of 33 trips to 23 constituencies during the period of the election. At first glance Dilyn’s visits seem more of a blessing than a curse. Fifteen of those constituencies went to the Tories, they held eight and won seven of those. The other eight went to Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

But bad news for Dilyn — the seats he visited multiple times both turned yellow. Kingston and Surbiton, which Dilyn and Symonds visited twice, was held by the LibDems’ Ed Davey. Worse was Richmond Park, which Dilyn worked a total of seven times. Zac Goldsmith, the incumbent MP, lost heavily to the Lib Dems. Goldsmith was a fan of Dilyn and was snapped on his knees nuzzling the Jack Russell terrier. “Not sure I’m going to get Dil back,” Symonds lamented.

Dilyn seemed to go door-to-door and was pictured, according to Goldsmith, “winning hearts and votes across the constituency” surrounded by a gaggle of beaming women. But it was to no avail. After the result Symonds said she was “gutted” that Goldsmith hadn’t been re-elected.

Out on the campaign trail, though, a happier moment came for Dilyn when he was reunited with his brother Larry in Wales. A video taken by Symonds showed the siblings wagging their tails in excitement. Dilyn was adopted by Johnson and Symonds earlier this year from South Wales, having lived briefly in Merthyr Tydfil, before arriving in Downing Street.

After the campaign finished, Symonds tweeted: “Dil and I have had such a great time getting to know Conservative candidates around the country, pounding the streets & knocking on doors.” After putting in such a good shift on the election trail, The Londoner expects Dilyn to bag a Cabinet position in today’s reshuffle.

The festival of gratitude for Corbyn

If you thought you’d seen the last of Jez Fest, think again. In February 2020, JC Fest, a “day of giving thanks to the great Jeremy Corbyn”, will debut. Organisers stress “this is NOT a festival like what happened in 2018”, a reference to the damp squib Labour Live festival, which struggled to sell tickets. The GoFundMe page says that Corbyn “has put up with a lot of abuse... this is our way of showing appreciation and gratitude to him”. As we went to print, it had a £5,000 goal and had raised £265.

'Regular Nonce' Boris Johnson

Thursday’s election result made fools of many, not least the writers over at US magazine Slate. In what was presumably an attempt to use British slang, they opened their news of the result in the following way: “A regular nonce, aye: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party dominated the UK’s general election Thursday”. Nonce sense.

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Ex-Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s wife Miriam González Durántez has cross words for the party in Spanish news site El Confidencial, naming “the fateful decision of the party to defend the revocation of Brexit without going through a second referendum” as one reason for a Tory victory. Erm. What about all those Facebook adverts?

Strictly champ at Red Shoes party

HEEL-CLICKING:Matthew Bourne and Darcey Bussell
Dave Benett/Getty Images

Darcey Bussell and Arlene Phillips shimmied down to the afterparty of Sir Matthew Bourne’s adaptation of The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells last night. Heel-clicking Spandau Ballet singer-songwriter Gary Kemp, who praised the “spectacular choreography”, and his wife, Lauren, were also there. Comedians David Walliams and Lee Mack also attended, rubbing shoulders with actor Andy Serkis. This was the second time superfan Walliams had seen the ballet and he said afterwards: “I can’t wait to see it again.” The show, which charts a girl’s dream to become the world’s greatest dancer, seemed to resonate with actor Kelvin Fletcher, who was celebrating having just been crowned Strictly Come Dancing’s champion. But speaking after his win, the former Emmerdale star said he is quite shy when it comes to cutting the rug and it “always takes a few beers” to get him on the dancefloor. Tell that to your Glitterball trophy, Kelvin.

SW1A

EX-Speaker John Bercow appeared on Italian TV last night, delighting a studio audience by bellowing his trademark phrase in Italian: “ORDINEEEE! ORDINEEE!”. He also explained his cult status, saying “a mix of the strangeness of the times and of the strangeness of this individual, which is me, meant that there was much more attention than normal” — a phenomenon we’re sure he must absolutely detest.​

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Labour’s Louise Haigh takes a break from the party’s online wars, explaining her sanctimony is “more than cancelled out by the fact that all I’ve consumed is an entire out-of-date Toblerone and several Lemsips”, adding the hashtag “#postelectionblues”.

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Lord Adonis tells us his favourite post-election quote was from The Times’ Patrick Kidd — “Momentum: the least aptly named force in politics since Lord Adonis.”

Illusionist Uri Geller takes credit for Conservative win

Illusionist Uri Geller takes credit for Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat. Pre-election, Geller pledged to use his telepathic powers to stop the Labour leader. “I took care, with my psychic powers, of the Jeremy Corbyn situation,” Geller told us this morning from his home in Tel Aviv. “I believe in my power, I believe in my abilities and I believe in my skills... and so does the CIA.” Spoon-bending Geller, a Remainer, said he’d like Boris Johnson to hold another referendum but conceded it was “very unlikely”. He said that he recently gave Johnson a spoon that belonged to former Israeli PM Golda Meir for good luck. It clearly worked.

Quote of the day

"No one wins when we scream and shout rather than talk"

Laura Kuenssberg accepts an apology from Gavin & Stacey actor Matthew Horne after he called her a "plopcarpet" during a 2am Twitter rant on election night.

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