British activist Yanny Bruere has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a grotesque blimp of London Mayor Sadiq Khan wearing a bikini… and has already garnered over £58,200.
“In light of the Donald Trump ‘Baby Trump’ balloon being allowed to fly over London during his visit to the UK, let’s get a ‘baby Khan’ one and see if free speech applies to all and whether or not Mr. Khan and the London assembly will also approve this,” Bruere wrote on the crowdfunding page.
Yanny tweeted that the bikini-clad Khan blimp, which is about three meters longer than the six-meter-tall “Trump baby,” will be flown on Saturday after City Hall and Khan himself gave permission to launch the balloon into the sky:
Yanny also stressed that any surplus money would be used in his ongoing campaign to remove Khan from office, defend free speech and “Make London Safe Again.”
Speaking to local media, the activist explained that he started the campaign because he was “so irritated that Mr. Khan took it upon himself to speak on behalf of the UK over the President’s visit.”
“Whatever anyone thinks of Mr. Trump, he is still leader of the free world and should be accorded the respect of that position… […] It’s ridiculous that he talked about the importance of freedom of speech when he gave permission for London to insult the President of the United States while imposing censorship himself upon the lives of ordinary Londoners. He would never have given permission for that balloon if it ridiculed Barack Obama,” he said.
The design of the blimp portraying the Mayor of London in a tiny bikini alludes to his decision to ban body-shaming ads on the underground, including the poster showing a woman in a bikini alongside the question “Are you beach body ready?”
Social media users weighed in to support Yanny’s initiative, with some saying karma has found him:
Ahead of Trump’s visit to London last month, Khan defended his decision to give the green light to the blimp of the US president, saying: “I shouldn’t be the arbiter, as a politician, of what’s in good taste or bad taste, what’s important is it to be peaceful, and for it to be safe.”
“And, frankly speaking, the idea that we limit the rights to protests, we limit the rights to free speech because it may cause offence to a foreign leader is a very, very slippery slope. […] Can you imagine if we limited freedom of speech because somebody’s feelings might be hurt?” he added.