My soft spot for Boris, the 'walking melting pot'
For some of you it may come as a surprise that I have a sneaking affection for Boris Johnson, who has declared himself a runner for the Tory mayoral candidacy. Some hate the fact that while Boris may affect a bumbling persona, he's actually a deeply skilful fabricator of his own image. I say: he's a politician.
Some say that he's a gaffe-prone toff.
I say: wasn't it always thus with the Tories? And at least by shooting his mouth off, Boris gives us the opportunity to shoot him down.
My experience of the man himself is that he's genuinely affable charming even. At the peak of my own tabloid hell during the 1997 general election, Boris conducted a sympathetic interview with me for his then newspaper. At least in a political system increasingly dominated by the spin-doctor values of former red-top hacks, Boris has the distinction of having been a quality journalist.
And a quality scholar as well. He is an accomplished Latinist. But as a student of Ancient Rome, he should be well aware of the defining player in London politics, namely, its mob. And that mob isn't composed of the Laura Ashley headscarfwearers who are Bozzer's natural constituency..
I well recall attending a charity quiz the day after Boris's affair with Petronella Wyatt had been exposed.
He was slated to be quizmaster, and when he appeared, he was treated to a standing ovation. But these hamper-munchers were his people: "plebeians" who shop at Fortnum's and send their kids to his own alma mater, Eton. For them, Boris's compulsive sexual behaviour was an amusing peccadillo. I'm not so sure that the majority of Londoners won't view it as I do as something more pathological and morally indefensible.
In yesterday's Standard, Boris positioned himself as an inclusive candidate who, as a "walking melting pot" himself, can reach out to Londoners of all ethnicities. However, he didn't have the temerity to say "all classes" because while he may inveigh against the income disparities of London in the Noughties, the glittering global financial capital, he hasn't got a hope in hell of matching King Newt's prowess in presenting himself as a man of the people.
You're not in Henley now, Boris.
Boris has committed himself to seeking policy advice from across the political spectrum and he needs it. His areas of concern, outlined in yesterday's piece, were unimaginative to the point of being trite. Creative thinking about affordable housing, transport and education is desperately needed. London can look after its own glister; what we need from our Mayor is some genuine gold, not just more yeasaying about crime and dog pooh.
On one vital issue, however, I find myself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the candidate. He may not have been born in our city or have grown up here but unlike his leader, the Member for Henley is a genuine London cyclist who knows how to jump lights and kerbs. In my book that makes him fully entitled to say: "Civis Londiniensis sum."
