Et tu, Boris? Johnson admits he wants to be Prime Minister

13 April 2012

Ambitions: Boris Johnson


As any ordinary politician will tell you, should they ever be asked if they would like to be Prime Minister, the correct answer is: ‘No...absolutely not...never.’

But London Mayor Boris Johnson is certainly no ordinary politician – and he was unable to restrain himself when the big question was fired at him in Beijing yesterday.

His first response barely concealed his delight at the prospect as he replied with a grin: ‘I wish I could think of a way of encouraging that kind of speculation, but I can’t.’

And then Mr Johnson – who often quotes phrases in Latin – resorted to his favourite tactic of classical allusion. ‘Were I to be pulled like Cincinnatus from my plough, then obviously it would be a great privilege,’ he proclaimed.

Mr Johnson was referring to the story of the maverick noble Cincinnatus who left Rome to work on his farm but was summoned back from the fields by the Senate and made dictator when the Roman army was trapped outside the city by warring tribesmen.

Cincinnatus was victorious, saved Rome, and then returned to work on his farm.

The Mayor’s comments, which came as he prepared to receive the Olympic flag for London at the closing ceremony of the Games today, are sure to infuriate Tory Leader David Cameron, who is himself preparing for office.

For while Mr Johnson is sometimes portrayed as a bumbling incompetent, he has a fierce intellect and is known to have a burning ambition for higher office.

There is also said to be a rivalry between the two men, which stretches back to their school days.

They were acquaintances at Eton, where Mr Johnson was the more academically and intellectually gifted, and contemporaries at Oxford, where Mr Johnson was a more successful figure, even though Mr Cameron got the First that Mr Johnson just missed.

However, Mr Johnson reined back when challenged about reports that he was driven by a determination to get the better of Mr Cameron.

He told The Mail on Sunday that the Tory leader was doing a ‘fantastic job’.

He was careful to say that ‘we may have a long time to wait’ before Mayor Boris became Prime Minister Boris.

But he stood by his claim that it is ‘piffle’ to argue – as Mr Cameron has – that Britain’s society is ‘broken’.

He declared: ‘He is completely right that British society has serious problems.

‘But if you say that Britain is a broken society in the sense that a tennis racket or a washing machine is broken and completely incapable of functioning, I would have to disagree with you.’

He said Britain’s youth had shown its fine qualities by the number of medals won in Beijing.

‘Britain’s kids are repeatedly slagged off as idle, shiftless, hopeless, feckless, useless and aimless, but here they have shown amazing guts and modesty,’ he said.

Mr Johnson was contemptuous of Gordon Brown’s prospects of being in No10 when the London Games take place in 2012.

‘I would not put an awful lot of money on it,’ he said. ‘He should have gone for an Election last October – it has all gone wrong since then.’

The colourful London Mayor, who has has been feted by the world’s media in Beijing and bombarded with requests for TV interviews, was soon back on his best buffoon’s form.

When asked how he would cope with waving a giant Olympic flag in front of a massive worldwide audience at today’s closing ceremony – as is the tradition for the recipient from the next venue – he said: ‘I’ll do my best not to drop it.’

He also joked that he would like to see the Eton Wall Game – a rumbustious form of rugby played only at the public school – introduced as an Olympic sport for the London Games.

Mayor’s modest hero was a model public servant

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, born around 519BC, has become a much-cited model of modesty, service to the common good and healthy lack of political ambition.

He was a consul in Rome in 460BC before leaving politics to return to his small family farm.

Years later, when a Roman army was surrounded by a tribe of warriors called the Aequi, who lived in the hills near Rome, Cincinnatus was chosen as the man to deal with the crisis

On duty: Senators visit Cincinnatus to tell him he has been made dictator

On duty: Senators visit Cincinnatus to tell him he has been made dictator

According to the Roman historian Livy, when a group of senators was sent to tell Cincinnatus that he had been nominated dictator, they found him ploughing a field.

He agreed to the request to return to Rome and, leading his new army, he is said to have defeated the enemy in a single day after a surprise attack.

He then disbanded the army and quit as dictator. His immediate resignation and return to retirement on his farm has been held up as an example of great leadership.

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