Cassetteboy vs Boris vs Covid

This satirical video is a critique of the UK government's reliance on 'technological solutionism' in the fight against Coronavirus and increasingly across public services more widely, and their willingness to then scapegoat ‘mutant algorithms’ when their hopes for technological panaceas inevitably fail.

Video
English
Length
2m8s

The two-minute video splices together clips of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, cleverly editing his speeches so that he mouths sentences such as:

  • 'Coronavirus won’t affect you if your immunity passport’s blue'
  •  'You can tell our technology’s going well, we’re running this whole thing in Excel'
  • 'A mutant algorithm trick, when it goes wrong, the blame won’t stick'
  • 'Our system’s world-beating at self-defeating'
  • 'So when results are not forthcoming, don’t ask me, ask Dominic Cummings'
  • 'It’s not my responsibility. The computer does it all you see'