Simple but effective politics
Peter Hoskin 5:12pm
Today Boris has pledged to scrap Ken Livingstone's “newspaper” The Londoner, and use the money to plant an extra 10,000 trees throughout the capital. It's a simple but effective proposal. For starters, I doubt anyone will miss the most disingenuous rag since Pravda stopped operating. And secondly, it's a plan which slices right through Livingstone's green rhetoric. The message from Boris is: “He talks green. I do green, and I'll plant the trees to prove it”. The more he gets this across, the more voters will follow CoffeeHouser J H Holloway's lead by questioning Ken's existing green agenda.
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mike
March 26th, 2008 5:56pmBoris doing his Joan of Ark pose for the tourists.
Fergus Pickering
March 26th, 2008 6:36pmBoris doesn't look AT ALL like Joan of Arc. King Alfred the Great, he looks the living spit of King Alfred the Great, just after he had defeated the Vikings, or whoever it was.
Cassius
March 26th, 2008 6:54pmHe looks more like Joan's husband, Noah.
RW
March 26th, 2008 8:22pmKing Alfred, as we all know,was the first Good King, despite burning the cakes (or maybe it was King Arthur). Perhaps Boris will follow in his footsteps and become the first Good Mayor of London. This would definitely be a Good Thing, as it would help to make him Memorable.
salieri
March 26th, 2008 8:27pmI distinctly remember an article (last year?) in the 'Spectator' in which BoJo argued passionately that salvation lay not in the planting of trees (which create CO2) but the mass slaughter of cows (which fart an awful lot). As I recall, the title was something like: "Save the Planet: kill a cow". Archives, Peter?
Mind you, he may not have had Central London specificlly in mind...
Northernhousewife
March 26th, 2008 8:31pmBoris we love you!
Boris, we do.
Makes you want to live in London [almost].
Chuck Unsworth
March 26th, 2008 9:08pmMike. Try the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Then again, maybe you're right.
David Boothroyd
March 27th, 2008 12:16amThe cost of producing 'The Londoner' is minuscule in the whole GLA budget, but it's about the only spending cut that was in Conservative plans. Now that we know Boris plans to spend the money on something else, we can be utterly confident in saying that if Boris Johnson is Mayor, either your GLA precept will go up, or he will cut the number of police and firemen.
mike
March 27th, 2008 12:16amChuck ..."Mike Try the Encyclopaedia Britannica" Once again you are there to point out my lack of education.I do my best you know, but poor health and the like have messed things up somewhat. Sorry that my comments annoy you. I'll probably stop posting now as you have spoiled it for me, but then that was probably what you had in mind all the time.
RW
March 27th, 2008 8:49amStop press - Gordon deserts Ken!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3629639.ece
What was all that about Ken being "an inspirational figure in London and a crusading mayor who has made a huge difference" according to our Gord, just a political week ago?
Seems Macavity has now arranged to be in the USA when the election reaches its climax, what a surprise, while Cameron will be standing by his man.
cityboozer
March 27th, 2008 9:11amPeter,
Pravda is still operating. You can even see it in English at http://english.pravda.ru/
You can see from the fact that their "Information Partners" include the Fortean Times that they are a much more respectable publication that Livingstone's propaganda sheet.
Pete Hoskin
March 27th, 2008 9:17amcityboozer: The original (voice of the Communist Party) Pravda newspaper was disbanded by Yeltsin in 1991.
Apparently, that website is partially run by former Pravda staff, but it's not the same thing. Besides, there's no print edition of the website.
salieri
March 27th, 2008 6:56pmRussians nowadays miss the punning fun they used to have in the days when the only broadsheets available were Pravda ("Truth") and Izvestia ("News"). The conventional wisdom in translation ran: 'No news in Truth. No truth in News.' KL is obviously familiar with the aphorism since 'The Londoner' gloriously exemplifies the deficiency of both.