Boris johnson

This is not as obviously a Question to Which the Answer is No as it may initially seem. The Mayor of London is, in fact, well-placed to play a significant part in the campaign to persuade Scots their interests still lie within the United Kingdom. In the first place, as the titular leader of europe’s greatest city he has no obvious or immediate dog in the fight. Neither Boris’s reputation nor his future will be dented by a Scottish vote for independence. His Prime Ministerial plans – for we all still assume he has such plans – will not suffer if Alex Salmond wins next year’s referendum. They might even benefit

‘Let’s have it every 90 seconds!’ shouted Boris to the CBI this afternoon as he played a series of clips of loud and quiet plane engines. He wanted to illustrate that ‘quiet’ planes would not make another runway at Heathrow palatable, and he used his customary strong language in attacking the government’s position on aviation policy. ‘End the dither, cut the cackle,’ the Mayor of London told the conference, urging the government to rule out a ‘toxic’ third runway by Christmas. While he’s trying to be loyal, the Mayor seems to have a special licence to attack the government on aviation. Today he said that ‘you can’t blame British business

That London Mayor has some cheek. In today’s Daily Mail, Boris suggests that our occasional diarist Pippa Middleton has wimped out of the ping-pong match she challenged him to in the Spectator earlier this year. ‘We have offered dates’, he says, ‘she has chickened.’ Au contraire, Boris. Here’s what really happened. The Spectator hounded Boris’s office to arrange the contest at our offices in 22 Old Queen Street, but Team Boris insisted that the match should be held at a venue of their choosing. Fine, said Pippa, who is a good a sport. Eventually a date was agreed — 12 September — but BJ pulled out. Fair enough, he’s a busy

Is Boris trying to imitate David Cameron? The Mayor of London usually likes to leave the Prime Minister wriggling awkwardly by stealing any show going, but today Boris seemed to be taking a leaf out of his rival’s book. Both men have recently fessed up to needing glasses, and at his select committee appearance today, the Mayor seemed to be emulating Cameron by awkwardly taking his new eyewear on and off throughout the session.

When you discuss Boris Johnson’s leadership prospects with Tory MPs, one subject nearly always comes up: immigration. The Mayor is a liberal on the subject while most of the party takes a far more sceptical view. Tory MPs wonder how he’ll explain to the electorate why he once backed an amnesty for illegal immigrants. But Boris’s Telegraph column today shows how he can make a better — and more demotic — case for immigration than any other politician. He is prepared to tackle the subject and, what he calls, ‘this sense of indigenous injustice’ head-on. He’s also surely right that the solution to ever-rising house prices in London is to build

When, in 1957, Harold Macmillan accepted the Queen’s invitation to become prime minister, following the resignation of Sir Anthony Eden, he returned from the Palace, marched up Downing Street to where Eden was waiting for him, and gave his old rival a man-hug, right there in front of the Pathé news cameras. No, of course he didn’t. But we have come a long way since then. Indeed, at the party conferences they were all at it: MPs, ministers, party activists, hug, hug, hug — and not a hoodie in sight. After the Mayor of London delivered his speech he was rewarded with a bear-hug from the Prime Minister, no less.

It is just two weeks since Boris Johnson came over all loyal at the Conservative party conference. The Mayor, it was reported, was putting his weight behind David Cameron because of the presence of Lynton Crosby and the apparent private offer of a safe seat. But it looks like he’s back to being troublesome by immediately questioning the government’s announcement that it will be relaxing visa rules for Chinese tourists. He told the World at One: ‘Well, we’ll have to see how this scheme actually works because the detail is a little bit unclear to us at the moment and I’m initially very, obviously very supportive and would hope that

On Wednesday I brought you the news that a politician could actually be funny occasionally. Many of you were shocked, disparaging or simply could not agree, so here is the case for the defence. I’ve got hold of the video of  Nick Clegg’s comedy turn at the LBC 40th Birthday party, so you can be the judge. Eat your heart out, ‘Slacker Johnson’.

Take note of the date Tuesday 8 October 2013, for it was on this day a politician actually made a funny joke. Giving a speech at the fortieth birthday party for London’s talk radio station, Boris Johnson described LBC as the ‘the teaming womb of broadcast radio’, quoted Plato and labelled the Office of Deputy Prime Minister as ‘entirely ceremonial’. And the Mayor had cause to be needled by Clegg. The Liberal leader had just given a far funnier star turn. Recording a video for the party, Clegg lamented about his weekly radio call in on the station ‘I have to listen to people banging on about crime and immigration every week… that’s

It has been left to Boris Johnson to identify the most significant future opportunity in this country — population increase. I was very impressed by his speech on Tuesday because he did a dangerous thing: he tried to reason his party audience out of its instinctive position. London has had more live births in 2012, he told us, than at any time since the 1966 World Cup. He attributed it to time spent on the sofa during the Olympics. Conservative supporters always favour economic growth but usually balk at any linkage with having more babies. Being predominantly old, they find large numbers of the young irritating. Yet, as Boris hinted, without specifically

listen to ‘Boris: ‘It’s time to cut the yellow Lib Dem albatross from around our necks’’ on Audioboo

Boris Johnson is difficult to pigeonhole, but at Tory conferences he seems to be taking the role of counsellor-in-chief, cheering up party activists with a slew of jokes and slights on other ambitious colleagues or indeed his party leader. As ever, there were two huge queues outside the auditorium this evening for his event on London, and some of the only truly sincere and excited-sounding applause when he (eventually) arrived. And there were jokes – ‘Ukip if you want to – David Cameron’s not for kipping. Not unless, obviously, he’s at his sister-in-law’s wedding’ and the definition of ‘Milipede’ being some sort of left wing insect – that left them

Boris Johnson sure knows how to make the front pages. His interview in the latest FT Weekend Magazine — with the cover quote ‘for the first time in years, I wished I was in Westminster’ — is a prime example of his strategy. He wants to remain in the public consciousness without revealing anything new. He’s done it several times before, often in similar ways: 1. After a period of inactivity, give an interview which appears revelatory Boris flits in and out of the spotlight, particularly when he’s busy trying to run London. Then suddenly, he appears front and centre with ‘news’. In the FT’s interview, he says ‘during the

Politics abhors a news vacuum. So with the government on holiday, attention shifts to the opposition. This is why oppositions normally have a whole series of summer stories ready to fill this vacuum. But, oddly, we have heard little from the Labour front bench in the last ten days or so. One consequence of this is that criticisms of Ed Miliband’s leadership by the Labour backbencher George Mudie are going to get more play than they normally would in tomorrow’s papers. There’ve been none of the attacks on a government that you would expect from the opposition in the penultimate summer before a general election. It is hard not to