Kangaroo balls > crypto? | Financial Times
In Britain, the man who two years ago was responsible for leading the public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic has likely committed to eating kangaroo genitalia.
According to the BBC:
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has been suspended as a Conservative MP after joining the cast of I’m A Celebrity. . . Get me out of here!
Hancock will swap representing his constituents in Westminster for eating bugs in the jungle. . .
Andy Drummond, deputy leader of the West Suffolk Conservative Association, said he was looking forward to seeing Hancock “eat a kangaroo’s penis”.
(For absolute minimum operating context, I’m a celebrity. . .is a program on the British channel ITV where celebrities are sent to a camp in Australia to hang out and undergo gruesome challenges – often involving disgusting foods – based on public votes. Because Britain is a normal place, politicians have sometimes appeared on it before the peak of their careers, rather than after.)
Of course, Alphaville readers may be more familiar with Hancock — who was fired after having an extramarital affair with an aide — for his longtime advocacy of crypto technology.
His planned appearance, as well as the loss of the whip, also marks the end of his bid to chair the influential Treasury select committee of MPs scrutinizing Britain’s public finances. There is a pros/cons table we would like to see.
The Sun – which first broke the story – says Hancock will join the new series as a “latecomer”, but it is not clear exactly how late he will be.
Potentially, Hancock’s scheduled appearance at the CryptoAM Summit and Awards, which starts on November 23, is in jeopardy. The former Tory had been due to give a keynote speech AND appear on a panel. We have contacted the organizers and will update when we know more.
Either way, it seems the man who once said it was his “mission” to make Britons love digital assets from the backbenches of Parliament is letting other distractions cloud his mind.
Who will now step in to adopt crypto-assets on this ancient island?
Oh.
I guess this was just a matter of time, but still, ROFL.
Boris Johnson to be keynote speaker at “International Symposium on Blockchain Advancements”
via @benzinga pic.twitter.com/E4xM7EGKvq— Jemima Kelly (@jemimajoanna) 1 November 2022
According to the press release (per ParallelChain Lab, per Yahoo! Finance), with our weight:
ParallelChain Lab, the organizer of the International Symposium on Blockchain Advancements (ISBA), announces a new keynote speaker for this year’s symposium: Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson. ..
Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, former Secretary of State and former Mayor of London. Mr. Johnson is globally known for its passionate leadership in education, technology and infrastructure. His policies are designed to drive investment, creativity and allow innovation to flourish in the UK and around the world.
We can’t wait to see his fee (OK, we can wait).
Johnson is in good company. Other ISBA guests include war criminal (per Malaysia) Dick Cheney and someone called gmoney who we’re told is a “highly regarded, prolific NFT curator and thought leader”.
With crypto brother Rishi Sunak at number 10 and BoJo now a master of the blockchain, it’s perhaps little surprise that Hancock could swing away from crypto-prophet to pure prime-time TV star.
