Boris: the media’s London candidate
Borish Johnson has decided to throw his hat into the ring as potential Mayor of London. He’s not going to win though. Of course, he comes across as a bit lovable etc, and many people are tired of Ken Livingstone’s politics of making alliances with religious bigots (of all stripes). But Boris has neither managed anything useful nor does he really understand London in my view. I can see the London media set supporting him and promoting him endlessly but they are not the people who vote.
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Filed in: Party politics
But Ken hasn’t managed anything useful, has he?
Hehe this will be a great election to watch! I don’t think he’s got a hope in hell of winning though…
*But Ken hasn’t managed anything useful, has he?*
Er, yes he has. It may be mundane and not very exciting (except for transport nuts like me) but Ken and London public transport are made for each other. You can throw in the congestion charge, massive bus improvements, Oyster introduction (the idea predated him, but the successful introduction is entirely on his watch), and coming down the line we’ve got the East London Line rebuild, taking the North London Line out of the national rail disaster and integrating it, the extension of Oyster onto suburban rail and various DLR enhancements. Taken as an administrator rather than a politician (i.e. someone who gets things done) I’d much rather have another four years of Ken than have Boris representing my city abroad, thanks.
hilarious. the man hasn’t a clue, he’s probably never been on public transport in his life. boris johnson indeed.
I’ve seen Boris on public transport and much more frequently on his bike in London.
Ken being a good administrator? He administers absolutely nothing – he’s an ideas man. Some of his ideas are decent, some not. He has also employed a few good people in key positions to impliment those ideas. That’s what politicans do. I don’t think Boris is so behind the curve in the ideas respect. I hope to see more flesh on the bones in the next couple of weeks
Anyhow the atmosphere amongst the real admimistrators in parts of city hall is tragic – a hellish moribund place where you go to hide until you retire. A good shake up is needed.
On the ambassador abroad point there may be some substance – but that really doesn’t bother me that much.
I love this guy. This crazy man is my favourite Tory. He wins top marks for comedy value. However, as well as considering what he could do for London (or not), I wonder if the stresses of such a job could rob BJ of his humour … this would be a big loss to all.
Boris Johnson shows how he will tackle Ken Livingstone in a football charity match.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=74myyFgfHes
I dunno mate.
I dunno.
It could well happen.
The thinking man’s buffoon could well do it.
Gaffe prone yet eloquent.
It’s a desperate throw of the dice by the Tories, but don’t underestimate the capacity of Londoners to stick 2 fingers up at politics and vote with their funny bones.
I bet the turnout will be higher than normal.
Ken Livingstone is a scumbag. He abuses his position as Mayor to associate OUR city with authoritarian thugs like Hugo Chavez and religious bigots like Sheikh Qaradawi. He employs fruitcake Marxists from the Socialist Action sect as his closest advisors (on £100,000+ salaries) and he pays a fortune to a drunken American to sit in rented house in Belgravia instead of sorting out public transport.
Boris? Bring him on coz he’ll be a vast improvement on what we’ve got now.
playing the buffoon can be an asset in politics..but Boris..ah Boris he does make me laugh so..
it’d have been funnier if boris tried to get elected mayor of liverpool..
I, too, once thought Boris was a buffoon until I read an interview with him in Vanity Fair a few years back, and was rather surprised with his assertion: “Life is messy”.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a politician say this, ever. To then read Boris arguing that, in his opinion, we have to recognise this fact and stop legislating, thinking and reacting as though we could have a perfect society, say, where no-one ever had an unwanted pregnancy, or marriages didn’t fail, or people didn’t kill each other, if only we had the right laws, policies, protocols — in short, if everyone behaved exactly like we wanted them to — was a breath of fresh air. To say then that politics is about recognising that nothing will ever be perfect and trying to make it easier for people when it does go wrong, as it inevitably will, made me think that Boris has a foot in reality that Ken will never have.
The problem is that Ken is stuck with a head full of a political metanarrative that informs everything he does. I don’t think this is the case with Boris.
And, to be honest, Boris’s views chime more with the public than Ken’s, and they buy into it — literally. The Speccie sold around 70K a week under Boris’s editorship, over four times the circulation of its left-wing rival New Statesman.
The problem is that Ken is stuck with a head full of a political metanarrative that informs everything he does. I don’t think this is the case with Boris.
*claps loudly*
as one of the people who his political metanarrative defines as oppressor/imperialist/villain, i couldn’t agree more.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Apart from having run a highly influential weekly political magazine for a long time before becoming an immensely popular MP?
The more people talk about how unlikely he is to take power, the more I think he might do it. I have no time for Tory party politics but Boris is a genuine free-thinker who says what he thinks, not what he thinks will get him elected. He is a proper libertarian.
PS Sonia – he rides a bike everywhere, baby.
Boris for Mayor!
(I may buy a T-shirt
)