Nadine Dorries has done it again.
The culture secretary prompted ridicule after featuring in a fellow Tory MP’s TikTok to explain her job.
But her phrasing raised a few quizzical eyebrows, and lent weight to the suggestion she struggles to fully grasp her brief.
In the clip shared by Luke Evans, she says the department of culture, media and sport is responsible for broadband, which means “you can downstream your movies” at home. People typically download movies.
One of her goals is to “make the internet in the UK the safest internet in the world”. The internet doesn’t really have national boundaries.
Dorries also fronts the Whitehall department in charge of sport, which involves “tennis pitches” (they’re usually referred to as courts), which is one of the places where you can “exercise your sports”.
Not bad for 42 seconds of work.
Social media could not resist.
It’s not the first time questions have been raised about whether Dorries is cut out for the job.
In November, she didn’t seem to know how Channel 4 – which the government wants to privatise – is funded.
It does not receive public funding but is ultimately owned by the state, with all the money it makes from advertising going back into the broadcaster.
It was also reported in March that she asked Microsoft executives when they were going to “get rid” of its algorithms.
The Politico report also claimed Dorries mentioned the same issue again “in a separate stakeholders meeting”.
