Comments on: Is Boris worrying about his Downing Street timetable?

By: Helen

Helen — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:20:03 +0000

Yesterday’s walkabout and jingoistic speech at Leadenhall Market, ostensibly in celebration of St George, was (like the Hillingdon “People’s Question Time”) nothing more than another Tory rally. Conservative Future had stage-managed a crowd of supposed-well-wishers who were instructed to cheer as Boris alighted from his Routemaster. And who appears on the front page of their website, urging Tory embryos to join, is it the leader of the party? Er…it’s Boris.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:58:44 +0000

When Johnson came out to talk about the tax just hours after the Budget, I thought he’d jumped head-first into the political trap Labour had set.
Some in-fighting between Cameron and Johnson would suit Labour down to the ground just at the moment, but he seems clever enough to realise that

By: tim f

tim f — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:29:49 +0000

Might he also be worried that if he messes up the Olympics (especially with all the protests associated with it), that’s it for his career? He doesn’t exactly have a good track record (excuse the pun) on detail, or crisis management.

By: Sunder Katwala

Sunder Katwala — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:14:42 +0000

chavscum, many thanks. Sorry you’ll never get those 2 minutes back. I write rather more about the Labour Party overall, but I realise this isn’t a Labour party forum (http://www.nextleft.org/)

It is Interesting how seriously the Tory party seems to be taking what is currently just a rumour this – with Shaun Bailey openly discussing that he would like to stand as their candidate – and the Standard reporting in detail on reactions.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23680398-details/London+Tories+look+to+a+future+without+Boris/article.do

Of course, we all know Boris is ambitious. But it will have a major impact on London politics were he to decide he was too ambitious to risk spending four more years as Mayor, which is what is being suggested here. My own view is that he can’t do that: it would look more ambitious than he wants to appear, he will want to use the Olympics to make himself much more famous.

I think he wants to be the British Ronald Reagan.

By: chavscum

chavscum — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:50:13 +0000

Sunder, you tosser, I fail to see the point of this rambling article. “I believe Boris is an ambitious politician” would have been sufficient, and I wouldn’t have wasted 2mins of my life reading it. You’d have thought Labour campaigners would have more important issues to discuss.

Its an indication of the obsessive fixation on the Tories held by far too many of the Left. Its this fixation that convinced them to support Blair and the careerist hypocrites over principles, which could possibly finish the Labour Party.

By: Sunder Katwala

Sunder Katwala — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:16:47 +0000

cjcjc – Thank you. On occasion, one even finds trollish commenters being courteous to Fabians!

By: cjcjc

cjcjc — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:01:42 +0000

What does that mean *exactly*?

And on what evidence do you consider him”repressive”?

By: Paul S

Paul S — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:59:04 +0000

“If you want to oppose him, better tactics than painting him as a repressive ultra-conservative will be needed.”

Sadly, this is true. Even though he *is* a repressive ultra-conservative.

And let’s not forget, a member of the Bullingdon Club. It’s worth remembering exactly what the means, and what it tells you about a person.

By: cjcjc

cjcjc — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:52:45 +0000

Sunder – you are always unfailingly courteous even to trollish comments, such as mine!

By: Mike Killingworth

Mike Killingworth — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:51:21 +0000

If the next Tory leadership contest comes down to Boris versus that EuroMP Fox News has the hots for, I think I know which one Conspirators would want to win.

By: Sunder Katwala

Sunder Katwala — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:32:06 +0000

cjcj

We have and will continue to write lots about the economy and the budget on Next Left. There is a good deal of interest in London politics on LC. The Standard billed this as a major story yesterday, so I thought others here might have views about what Johnson’s strategy is.

He is, I think, perfectly serious about his ambitions. I advise against our misunderestimating him

By: cjcjc

cjcjc — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:18:42 +0000

Shorter Sunder: “never mind about Brown’s mess, have another laugh at Boris.”

By: Alisdair Cameron

Alisdair Cameron — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:23:26 +0000

Sorry, should have made clear in 3, that depicting Johnson as a bogey-man was a tactic of Ken Livingstone.It didn’t work out did it, and combined with the strong suspicion of cronyism, sharp practice and plain fatigue/disillusionment with anything even nominally Labour, led to Boris’ victory.

By: Alisdair Cameron

Alisdair Cameron — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:18:44 +0000

Hmm. Thing is, it’s damn near impossible to successfully paint Boris as an uber-right-wing bogey-man: it won’t wash with the electorate, who kinda like him, even some of those who abhor his policies (which to date in London haven’t been the disaster predicted by some) and who didn’t vote for him. There are Tories who are ‘horror’ figures (and actually q. a few New lab such figures), but Johnson’s not one of them: despite appearances he’s shrewd and in some social terms rather liberal, backing the living wage, and this week being the subject of much praise from Julie Bindel. If you want to oppose him, better tactics than painting him as a repressive ultra-conservative will be needed.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:48:49 +0000

“Wow! They used to sack journalists for making up quotes?! Amazing…”

Boris made up statistics during the election. We still voted him in.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:14:31 +0000

“Losing would appear a crushing blow to his future political plans. But, even if that happened, it would not be a surprise to discover that Boris has Clinton-like attributes of bouncebackability. (Being sacked from his first journalism job for making up quotes proved no barrier to becoming not just a star columnist but Spectator editor).”

Wow! They used to sack journalists for making up quotes?! Amazing…