You may have thought it nigh-on impossible, but Stella Creasy has outdone herself today. The lefty Labour MP posted a video on X showcasing what she believed to be an escaped pet parrot in a Walthamstow park.
Turning the camera on herself, Creasy declared: ‘If you have lost a parrot, not a parakeet, there is a parrot on the loose in Lloyd Park. If you’ve lost an actual parrot, because it’s too big to be a parakeet, it’s in Lloyd Park right now.’ Alongside the bizarre video, she posted:
Walthamstow has anyone lost a parrot? There’s one in Lloyd park right now! Please share to help reunite it with its owner!
There was just one small problem: the animal in question was indeed a parakeet – although parakeets can also correctly be described as parrots. Rose-ringed parakeets, the species Creasy likely spotted, are a common sight across London, particularly in the capital’s parks and leafy suburbs. Tens of thousands are thought to live in the city, making them one of its most conspicuous wild birds. With their bright green feathers, noisy calls and tendency to gather in large flocks, they are rather difficult to miss. Still, bless dear Stella for her concern.
Less forgiving were users in the X comments, where the Labour MP was subjected to some truly hilarious mockery. The top reply, from Charles Small, featured a picture of a deer in Richmond Park accompanied by the words: ‘Lost cat in Richmond Park! And it has a tree branch stuck on its head, poor thing. Please share.’
Perhaps Creasy really is as bird-brained as her critics claim.
UPDATE: The MP for Walthamstow has now posted another video on X, admitting that she misread the parakeet situation – while lamenting that the press have been rather too mean to her about it.
In a piece to camera, Creasy moaned: ‘Journalists want to cover the fact that I as a local MP, thought I was helping to reunite a lost pet with its owner… Now it turns out, it probably was a parakeet. I can’t believe that that’s actually news – but apparently so.’
She went on to complain: ‘If we make public life an environment where only those people who know absolutely everything about anything, and are always right, can be, I don’t think any of us would like the outcome. It wouldn’t actually be very representative of the wider British public.’
The Labour MP then whinged that loads of people tell her they would never want to become an MP ‘because of the constant negativity’. She concluded: ‘I worry about our democracy and our public life if we make it impossible for normal people who don’t know everything about everything to be able to be part of it – and that’s the real story here!’
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