Though Johnson didn’t formally enter the competition and broke the ban on using the made-up word “wankerer,” the former mayor was awarded the prize for being willing to stand up to Erdoğan and for free speech. Competition organizer Douglas Murray said:

Certainly there were better poems. For sure there were filthier ones (and may I take this opportunity to congratulate the person who got the term ‘dirty trombone’ into their entry? The discovery that something called a ‘Turkey slap’ already exists also inspired several readers to new poetic heights).

But this award is entirely anti-meritocratic. For myself, I think it a wonderful thing that a British political leader has shown that Britain will not bow before the putative Caliph in Ankara.

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