The TILT Thread (Today I Learned That…)
Ava Richardson “Today”… I learned about the full context of Burger King’s infamous “Whopper Bus” that toured London a while back, and by extension, the even more legendary “Brexit Bus” from even earlier.
You see, I first heard about the “Brexit Bus” in the context of the “Whopper Bus”, which — along with the image of a Burger King Whopper — had this zinger of a statement boldly printed on its side:
“Another Whopper on the side of a bus. Must be an election.”
That was, again, quite a while ago. Now, on one of the many wiki walks I took that night, I returned to the Whopper Bus and decided to probe further with a search of “Brexit Bus”. Said Brexit Bus turned out to be, well… a bus, yes. Specifically one driving around London in 2016 with a political ad stamped on the side of it, which claimed that £350 million was being wasted per week as a result of the UK remaining in the European Union, and that exiting the European Union — or in order words: supporting Brexit — would allow that money to be funneled to the NHS (the national health service agency for England) instead.
Said claim was made by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a fervent supporter of Brexit. You might have heard of him, haha, and let’s just keep it at that.
Said claim was also demonstrably false, according to pretty much all reputable sources. Hence, Burger King’s “Whopper Bus”. Cheeky, huh?
Not that any of that was a surprise, though. (Politicians, amirite? Again, let’s just keep it at that.) What I actually learned from all of that was that none of the supposed £350 million saved per week from Brexit ever made it to the NHS — because, of course, said £350 million never actually existed in the first place — and that, most critically of all given that fact, said NHS is in fact critically underfunded and understaffed at the moment. How is this relevant to me, you might ask? Because the UK just happens to be on my shortlist of places where I might be moving in the very near future.
Oof…
