Conservative MP Steals Dumbledore’s Words of Wisdom

When you’re a politician it must be difficult to keep coming up with pearls of wisdom to share with the nation. Politicians know that to sound profound and memorable is a great part of getting elected, or re-elected. When they are stuck for words, they may look elsewhere for inspiration, maybe in the books they’ve read which may explain why Conservative MP Sam Gyimah stole one of Dumbledore’s most famous quotes on BBC Question Time last weekend.

The incident has come back and bitten the Conservative MP for East Surrey’s proverbial bum as he has chosen to plagiarise one of Dumbledore’s most famous quotes. When talking of the recent behaviour of Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May’s response of it, Gyimah sais “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your friends, it takes even more bravery to stand up to your enemies”.

Those familiar with the Harry Potter story will know this quote appears both in the book and the film, and Twitter user @Dai_Slocs was keen to point that out.

Since Trump came to power, many references and similarities between the book and the administration have been made. Rowling herself has called them all Death Eaters, and she’s readily admitted that the books are about the rise and fall of an autocracy.

Even so, we think that Sam Gyimah could either veil his references a little better, or at least give credit to the wise old wizard we all love.