Joking apart: why Boris is the man for the job
Boris Johnson has confounded his critics, says Matthew d’Ancona. The contest will go to the wire, but our man has proved himself to be both shrewd enough and serious enough to take charge
I think Labour believed it could cripple his campaign before it began in earnest. For its part, the Tory high command worried Boris was leaving it too late, that he was coasting towards defeat. Rightly, he was compelled to apologise for unacceptable language he had used about black people, albeit in a satirical context. But Ken was suspended for four weeks in 2006 for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. Neither candidate has a spotless record when it comes to such sensitivities.
Livingstone has always played the cheeky chap Cockney card with brilliance — although, as I have written before, he is more Bill Sikes than Artful Dodger these days. Throughout the campaign, he has presented his Tory opponent as a right-wing interloper, a political colonialist who does not belong here. In Monday’s Independent, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown went even further, declaring that Boris ‘does not have the sensibility of a Londoner; he is not one of us’. One of us? Who, exactly, does she mean by ‘us’? What an irony that a journalist who has supposedly fought for inclusivity and diversity for so many years should end up using the grumpy language of the golf club membership committee.
To adapt Whitman’s phrase: London is large, it contains multitudes. Sorry, Yasmin, but ‘inclusive’ means including Old Etonians, too; diversity covers well-spoken white men as well as everyone else. As the philosopher John Gray has written, we live in an age in which ‘pluralism is an historical fate’, in which life is — in Salman Rushdie’s image — gloriously ‘mongrelised’. Hence, this is an article by a half-Maltese journalist about a Tory candidate of Turkish descent (see Norman Stone on page 16). In such a mixed-up, commingled world, it makes no more sense to vote against Boris because of his accent and his schooling, than it would to vote against Ken because of his nasal twang or his interest in newts. It is surely time to sear such infantile tosh out of our political judgments once and for all.
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Ray
April 24th, 2008 2:00pm Report this commentGo, Boris, Go! And my advice to you once in office is to copy the winning formula of Ronald Reagan - that other famous larger-than-life politician with a gift for bonhomie - and surround yourself with a team of highly competent lieutenants. You set the policy themes and be the public face of London; let them get on with the nitty-gritty of actually getting the job done.
The Bellman
April 24th, 2008 2:15pm Report this comment"Boris for PM" say I.
My bet is that he will be PM at some stage. How wonderful it would be to be lead by somebody sans spin.
I'll say it again, "Boris for PM" and again "Boris for PM".
And what I tell you three times is true.
Augustus
April 24th, 2008 4:57pm Report this commentWho wants Red Ken back in power? Using London's money to fund communists and anarchists was a bleeding disgrace. you can conduct all the surveys you like, but people who want a change will vote for it.
Madasafish
April 24th, 2008 9:52pm Report this commentIf Boris does become Mayor, I can see an awful lot of crazy nutter organisation suddenly running out of money.
David
April 25th, 2008 11:21am Report this commentBellman.
Did you really say "lead" instead of "led"?
The Spectator is the last place I'd have expected to find such a howler.
paddy dooley
April 25th, 2008 12:38pm Report this commentBoris will serve you and I, Red Ken has, and always will serve himself and his self esteem, which will never be satisfied as Ken has so many issues you could fill all the empty seats at
port vale fc next season with them....good luck blondie
Adrian
April 25th, 2008 8:26pm Report this commentOn Tory conference call tonight - at the start "the Q & A will follow at the end", then no Q&A - because Boris cannot even handle questions from Tories.
jon livesey
April 25th, 2008 8:56pm Report this commentWhat is true of London is also true of the UK. In a modern world, the UK deserves to see democracy work to produce governments appropriate for the UK that exists in the real world, not the imaginary UK that inhabits the pages of the Guardian, or the fantasies of teaching unions.
Political commentators in the UK these days thrash about offering this and that dodge and wheeze to improve things, but they miss the main point, which is that the debates, feuds and sensibilities of the seventies don't quite cut it in the new millennium, not because they are wrong, but because they are irrelevant.
Countries whose political classes conspire to criminalise discussion of the problems that really anger the voters are countries that cannot confront their most pressing issues, and so risk being overwhelmed by them.
Water
April 25th, 2008 11:24pm Report this commentIt's more a case of compromise and competency... all three of them are just so bad. I’ve heard that all real Englishmen seem to be leaving the country. Well please come back because these three are unutterably ghastly.
Dwight Vandryver
April 26th, 2008 12:46am Report this commentTaken from Not the Nine O'Clock News: Boris Johnson, on being asked by a reporter "Have you had sex with a man?", he replied "Not yet". Not only was this a very witty impromptu response, but also very astute since it offended nobody. One wonders how Ken Livingstone would have reacted to the question. Boris's ability to strike a favourable chord with the average guy has to be an asset in any mayoral candidate.
[Apologies in advance for any typos or grammatical errors.]
John Worrall
April 27th, 2008 9:10pm Report this commentMarriage vows are the most solemn promises you ever make. A man who breaks these cannot be trusted to keep other promises.
Stefan
April 28th, 2008 5:17pm Report this commentGreat article - and a great chance for Londoners to stand up to the tyranny of the politically correct left-wingers (aka Mr Livingstone's rainbow coalition). I know the British love a fair fight as well as the (seemingly) under-dog winning - so come on and have a go!
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