This cartoon by Patrick Blower from The Daily Telegraph uses a play on words to connect two news stories. On the left, we can see disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who has been banned for life by USADA for doping, coercing other riders to use performance-enhancing products and trafficking drugs. And on the right, Conservative MP and Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell who has been at the center of a controversy since clashing with police officers who stopped him cycling out of the main gates of Downing Street. It is alleged that the senior Tory called the officers “f------ plebs”. He has insisted he did not use “the words attributed” to him, but has refused to detail exactly what he did say.
VOCABULARY
1. If someone dopes, they take drugs. • It wasn't only US Postal that was doping, of course. More than half the Tour de France winners since 1980 have either tested positive, been sanctioned for doping, or admitted it.
2. If someone calls a person a dope, they think that the person is stupid. • A parish priest has slated Taoiseach Enda Kenny as "a dope" over the controversy surrounding his Vatican visit.
ALSO SEE
• Andrew Mitchell must tell truth over 'pleb’ row or quit, say police (The Telegraph)
• Lance Armstrong's former teammate spills the dirt on disgraced champion's sordid regime (Herald Sun)
