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Friday 5 December 2008

Anti-Boris

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I'm with Stephen on this one. And Tim Hames also lays out several persuasive reasons why the golden-haired one should not be running for mayor of London.

I've only just got round to reading Matthew Parris's advice to the candidate. Here's the part that caught my eye:

The public-school jibe could be really damaging. No Etonian should be allowed within five miles of his campaign. Boris is not a snob, Londoners are not inverted snobs, and Johnson could even turn his toffishness to his advantage if the inevitable class-based Labour and Liberal Democrat attacks on him appeared unwarranted; but he must make sure they do appear unwarranted. The Spectator cannot help him here, except by steering clear.

A Tory friend of mine was rather unexpectedly saying, over supper the other evening, that the one thing he admired about the new Prime Minister was he really does try, does struggle, and has been struggling all his life. Gordon Brown gives the impression that this job is everything to him — that it’s a huge effort, but the only thing he’s ever wanted to do, the thing without which he would count not just his career but his life a failure. He cares so much that he cannot pretend. This earnestness (my public-school friend said) was quite unfamiliar in the circles in which we moved, and wholly admirable.

Personally, I think the Hon Member was lucky to survive the Liverpudlian fiasco. Next time it will be for keeps.

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