Chutzpah, pizzazz and style — what Dave can learn from Boris

Wednesday, 9th December 2009

As the most powerful Conservative in Britain, Boris Johnson has plenty to teach his old schoolpal, David Cameron. But, says James Forsyth, the Cameroons are too busy criticising the Mayor’s ‘amateurish’ approach to see what they’re missing

As a piece of political propaganda, the sticker issued by the Crisis housing charity at the last Tory conference came close to perfection. It had a picture of the Mayor of London in jogging gear, with the caption: ‘Boris is making the running on rough sleeping. Join the race, Cameron!’ This was how Crisis thought they could best get their message across: goading Team Cameron into action by comparison with Mr Johnson. It was a clever use of a fast-emerging narrative in Westminster: the great Boris v. Dave rivalry.

It is a point of fact, now, to say that Mr Johnson is the most powerful Conservative in the land. The idea, though, of the Mayor as a great pioneer, beating a path for the laggards in Westminster to follow, is one which annoys many people around Cameron. When I told one shadow Cabinet member that I was doing a piece on what Cameron could learn from Boris they looked at me with genuine concern before warning, ‘they’ll really hate that.’

This tension between the two camps makes the Boris v. Dave story irresistible to the media. But Boris has been busy seasoning this stew, outflanking Cameron and Osborne on those Tory staples of tax and Europe. Among the Tory grassroots, there are now a growing number of Conservatives who like to think of the Mayor as a lodestar: a man less apologetic in his conservatism, and indeed everything else, than the leader.

Both Boris and Dave are, of course, Old Etonians who graduated to Oxford and then the Bullingdon Club. But they are not cut from the same cloth. The Mayor’s friends enjoy pointing out that he went to Eton on a scholarship. Cameron supporters retort that while Boris left Oxford with only a 2:1, Cameron took a First. Their styles are also opposites: one suave and assured, the other dishevelled and chaotic. Boris says what he thinks almost without thinking. Cameron’s pronouncements are carefully calibrated. Work on Cameron’s conference speech began in July, Boris’s was written on the train to Manchester.

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logdon

December 10th, 2009 6:26pm Report this comment

Honesty, or the appearance of is your answer.

The spin free zone that is Boris is so appealing to voters who've had it up to their necks with the nest of vipers which calls itself Labour.

Another day, another lie is the bleak expectation and boy do those hypocrites never fail to let us down.

It's why Melanie and Rod's comment sections are stuffed with participants.

We can engage. We know it's from the heart. They become part of the fabric of our media intake. And we know there's another story just around the corner which will follow the same mindset.

How refreshing?

And non more refreshing than a dose of Johnson compared with the odious and devious newt fancier who preceeded.

terence patrick hewett

December 10th, 2009 7:55pm Report this comment

Johnson is running rings around his opponents, and they don't even realise it. Not the least when he was attacked because of his Shed. We live in a Shedocracy; Boris understands this deep love of Sheds that the English have, because he understands and loves the English. Bozza reminds me of Lord Palmerston, both in his oratorical delivery and his popularity. Boris is popular because people feel he is on their side against the big battalions. Against those people who "love every country but their own." Or, as Pam neatly put it; against those who propagate the view that "everything that was English was wrong, and everything that was hostile to England was right." The diverse peoples of London know that they are in no danger from libertarian Boris, but The Dark Lord and his Merry Men are right to fear what he represents.

Cuffleyburgers

December 11th, 2009 7:56am Report this comment

The London mayoralty is also an excellent way to float potential tory policies and start to obtain acceptance for eventual roll-out on a national scale.

Looks like a clever tactic to me.

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