British politics features a strategy called deadcatting. The brainchild of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former electoral adviser Lynton Crosby, it goes like this: If you’re at a dinner party and you make a terrible mistake — say something awful, commit an unpardonable act or get caught in a lie — your dinner companions may gaze at you in horror. They may demand an apology or seek redress. This is where the deceased feline comes in. You simply produce a dead cat from your bag, whacking it onto the table with a thud. Immediately, everyone reacts. Cries of disgust. Alarm. Furor. Chaos. People are arguing about what to do with the thing — cleaning up, throwing up, screaming, pointing. “Everyone will shout, ‘Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!’” explained Johnson. “In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat — the thing you want them to talk about — and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.”
