EasyJet has issued an apology to staff after elements of a speech aimed at motivating pilots and cabin crew were remarkably similar to Leo Varadkar’s inspirational St. Patrick’s Day rallying call.
Similarities were spotted between the speech delivered by EasyJet’s chief operating officer Peter Bellew and that which earned Varadkar so much praise five days ago.
Various parts of Bellew’s speech were identical to Varadkar’s, which didn’t go unnoticed and one person spliced the videos together to highlight the likenesses.
Varadkar was widely praised for his rousing speech last Tuesday, when he encouraged the country to stand together and advised citizens how to behave in order to halt the spread of Covid-19.
And the speech was so good that, apparently, it was deserving of a second go when the EasyJet COO reached out to his pilots and cabin crew.
In an apology to staff on Saturday, Bellew wrote: “Some of you have spotted similarities between the message I did last week and a recent speech by the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. I can only hold my hands up and apologise. I thought the Taoiseach struck exactly the right note and it really resonated in my mind with what we are going through, so I borrowed some of his phrases in my recent message to cabin crew and pilots, which I realise now I should not have done.
“I would like to say sorry to the Taoiseach and to all of you. I will write all of my own speeches in future.”
