43 thoughts on “Mayor Campaign”

  1. “The mystery is not why someone would want to be Mayor of London. The mystery is why someone would not want to do the job, and to try to make this city greater still.”

    Perhaps because the people of Henley voted you in for a term and we expected you to carry out that term, not hop, skip and jump to what seems to be an ego swelling post, and leave us to face some parachuted in Cameronite with no policies and who will be no doubt wetter than most of Oxfordshire is right now?

  2. “The mystery is not why someone would want to be Middle East Peace Tzar. The mystery is why someone would not want to do the job, and to try to make this conflagration greater still.”

    Perhaps because the people of Sedgefield voted you in for a term and we expected you to carry out that term, not hop, skip and jump to what seems to be an ego swelling post, and leave us to face some parachuted in Brownite with no policies and who will be no doubt more Scottish than most of Mc Westminster is right now?

  3. I’m so excited, I’ve bought a t-shirt from Boriswatch.com that I plan to wear every weekend!

  4. On a poll for Mayor of London Boris has taken a early lead on http://www.Whats-on-in-London.com
    Keep this up and he will walk it.

    Current Results for Mayor Of London
    Who would you vote for as the New Mayor of London

    Boris Johnson 64.00%
    Ken Livingstone 28.00%
    Steve Norris 4.00%
    A N Other 4.00%
    Total 100%

  5. John Smith:

    Thanks for the info on the poll! Unfortunately with those percentages I’m guessing 25 people answered the poll – of whom 1 voted for each of S.N. and Another, and 16 voted for Boris. 7 for the other guy. Even so, it’s encouraging!

  6. Unfortunately Boris is trailing Ken slightly in the bookies – and I tend to give them some credit since they’re professionals who lose money if they get it wrong. Nonetheless, I think that will turn around dramatically when Boris announces policies, and I have no doubt that Boris will win it!

  7. Ummm

    John Smith, as above, is the domain registrant for both:

    borisjohnsonformayor.com

    and

    Whats-on-in-London.com

    This is sound marketing and should be encouraged. More. I think.

  8. Someone on television the other day said of BoJo that had he been born 200 years ago, he would have died at the age of 30 leading a cavalry charge into a volcano. It struck a chord.
    Fond as I am of Boris, I cannot see him in a serious position of responsibility.

  9. When Boris is Mayor, he should seriously consider a PRT (personal rapid transport) system for London. It would become the envy of the world. He has the balls to do it, unlike every other local policymaker in the country.

    Er, have I mentioned PRT before, Jack? 🙂

  10. Johnson is not verbally articulate enough to be mayor.

    Sure, he writes well, but that’s not a skill in short supply in Britain. We’ve got an over-abundance of people who write well, because at school we’re always told to “express yourself and be creative (and it’s a lot more fun than simultaneous equations).

    If Boris feels he owes society a debt, which he does [owe a debt, ed], he should learn to do something unpleasant but useful like programming computers: that would make him a truly useful citizen.

    A mayor needs to be a highly skilled speaker. I’m not pretty: that’s why I can’t a be a pop-star. C’est la vie.

  11. <‘Unfortunately Boris is trailing Ken slightly in the bookies – and I tend to give them some credit since they’re professionals who lose money if they get it wrong.’ (Jack Target)<

    Bookies tend to set their odds in order to manipulate demand for bets and remove risk. Ideally, by the time of the election, William Hill and their friends will want to be in a position where they can’t lose. Whilst odds can be a good indicator of the market, in small races (and let’s face it, the Mayoral election is hardly the Grand National as far as gambling goes) a few big bets can scew the odds as the bookies try and persuade more people to back the runners they want to take bets on.

  12. <‘Johnson is not verbally articulate enough to be mayor.’ (hadger)<

    Bush didn’t use a good enough vocabulary to be leader fo the free world, but it didn’t half wind up liberla lefties when he opened his mouth. That is what is so great about him.

    Boris will have the same effect on all the old Trots and Stalinists that run local government in London, they’ll pull their hair out every time he bumbles through a speech. That is what will be great about Boris as mayor (unless you like the silly old Trots and Stalinists that run London councils).

  13. hadger “Johnson is not verbally articulate enough to be mayor.

    Sure, he writes well, but that’s not a skill in short supply in Britain. We’ve got an over-abundance of people who write well, because at school we’re always told to “express yourself and be creative (and it’s a lot more fun than simultaneous equations).”

    Probably applies more to Eton where Boris went than the city academies.

  14. Interesting comparison with Bush, Steven. But Boris can deliver more truths in one well-aimed mumble than most politicians can in a ten-minute speech.

  15. Please let’s not compare Boris to Bush very often…

    I too have recognised Boris’ faults as a speaker, despite being an outstanding writer. Let’s hope the campaign work on that somewhat, and I don’t think that Londoners will be as prone to choosing an inarticulate bumbler as Americans.

    But Paul, I don’t seem to remember us discussing PRT before – I think it deserves a full further discussion with input from Boris and a policy paper at the end of it, just to ensure I remember properly next time.

  16. Boris lacks the life experience to be a good mayor. Aside from that short spell for the local paper in the Midlands, has he ever done a day’s work in his life?

  17. fredler, you’ve never turned out 2000 words on deadline, have you?

    Vicus, I disagree about Boris leading the charge into the volcano. I think he’d turn up a couple of hours late and give a beautiful eulogy on the spot.

  18. Never mind being a journalist, imagine being an MP and having to be nice to everyone whilst they whinge at you incessently and blame you and your colleagues for every qwirk of fate they’ve experienced and every idiotic decision they’ve made in their lives.

    Has any modern day MP ever actually told a constituent to ‘Get lost’ or similar I wonder? I’d end up flipping out with one of them personally and probably doing just that.

  19. Gosh, I wander away for s short spell only to come back and find out that Boris has been declared an inarticulate, ne’er do well with a dearth of life experience. Is this Bizarro World?

    hadger: Johnson is not verbally articulate enough to be mayor

    Why? Because he puts his foot in it now and again? Surely that doesn’t disqualify someone – Ken’s blurted out some sterling examples of that himself and it doesn’t seem to have kept him out of office.

    Or is it that you object to Boris piffling on and letting an occasional sentence get away from him?

    That’s what happens when the brain is going in twice as many directions as the mouth – all at the same time. Result? He ends up sounding slightly scattered for a minute. I’ve never had any trouble understanding him.

    fredler: has he ever done a day’s work in his life?

    Why do people refuse to see writing as work? Those articles and books don’t just “appear” out of the keyboard on their own, you know.

    I assume that since you don’t consider writing sufficiently “work-like” you probably don’t consider being a newspaper editor worthy of the term either. Newspapers and newspaper staffers don’t manage themselves. As for his current gig – I won’t even hazard a guess about the weekly schedule of your average MP. Unless you want to try and convince me that it really is Melissa standing behind him pulling the strings.

    Which – now that I think of it – I rather like the sound of.

    Melissa! Tell the truth. Are you really the power behind it all? Come on! You can tell us. We won’t split on you.

    Good to have the site back again. I hate it when it goes away. 🙂

  20. But Paul, I don’t seem to remember us discussing PRT before

    I recall you had a light pop at me for raising it out of context on another post some months ago, Jack. A very mild one, of course, and you were keen on PRT in principle. Or was it someone else?

  21. No no, it was PRT – I was just joking mate 🙂 hence calling for a full discussion and paper with input from Boris! Nah, you have my full support for PRT, I think it’s a brilliant and feasible idea and should be explored immediately.

  22. I did suspect a little irony there, Jack, but having been in the USA for a couple of weeks the irony sensors may have becomed dulled.

    Of course it would need full discussion. The media would be praying for a revolutionary system like PRT to come off the rails. Any politician agreeing to such a high profile project would be staking his career on it. That’s why I think BJ is the man – he’s prepared to take these risks.

  23. . . . if Melissa were pulling the strings they’d show much less tendency to trip him up.

    Ah yes, good point. Still, if anyone were going to be the “Power Behind It All” I’m sure our esteemed Webmaster would be shortlisted for the job.

    Speaking of shortlisting, I was looking over the other names that made it through the cull. Not that it’s rally important but on the shallowest of levels, I can’t help but feel that none of those names really sound quite right when combined with the title of the position.

    Though I’m sure that the opportunity to say “Mayor Boff” would amuse the children.

  24. Hello, single issue numbnuts here:

    I refer the Right Honourable gentleman to:

    Dr. Ian Davis is co-director of the British American Security Information Council, which has offices in London and Washington. Formerly Program Manager at Saferworld, he has published widely on British defense and foreign policy, European security, the arms trade, and nuclear and conventional arms control.

    ‘The next UK general election must be held on or before 3 June 2010. It is possible that it may be held in June 2009 to coincide with elections to the European Parliament or even as early as Spring 2008, if a confident Gordon Brown were to take a sustained lead in the opinion polls. There are four key areas in which the UK election battleground will be fought:

    1.
    The Economy.

    2.
    Health

    3.
    The English/Scottish divide (The ‘West Lothian Question’):

    4.
    Foreign policy and the relationship with the USA’

    http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4412

    Issued: 23rd July 2007

    Can we have a red and white flag at City Hall? This is not a sideshow, this is critically strategic.

  25. hadger: “Johnson is not verbally articulate enough to be mayor.”

    I agree with this. I suspect his decision was made in a moment of self-delusion after a couple of bottles of red wine.

  26. …on the shallowest of levels, I can’t help but feel that none of those names really sound quite right when combined with the title of the position. (dmnyc).

    Not shallow at all. Don ‘t underestimate the power of the name.

    One of many things Ian Duncan-Smith had against him was his name. After his elevation to Tory Leader, it took many months before the press could agree on a soubriquet. The Sun tried “Dunc” and “Dunky” but it looked daft. “Ian” – nice and economical in headlines – was too chummy for an earnest baldie. “Smith” was useless. And so they all settled on “IDS”, ugly and impersonal.

    Compare Boris / Boz /Bozza. They fit the character perfectly. So does “Ken”. It sounds like a consumptive cough.

  27. Don ‘t underestimate the power of the name.

    that’s true. I’ve noticed some people DO tend to fit their name.

  28. Read somewhere today that Boz had been set about by left wing thugs and thrown off his bike or something.

    Hope you are well Boris.

    Unless it was Raincoaster in which case you probably quite enjoyed the experience 😉

  29. Rough someone up? Perish the thought! When I hit them, they damn well stay down.

    May I suggest with what I know of the British left, that the thugs in question were probably apolitical and simply wilding (urban rage, thugs, etc). When the left takes violent action, it tends to be both histrionic and fatal to a significant number of people. Commies think in terms of groups: only Libertarians think in terms of eliminating the individual (see US assasination attempts on Castro, etc).

    I hope A) Boris is okay and B) those thugs get arrested. And subsequently spayed AND neutered.

  30. I trust Boris will be allowed to offer his own unique range of policies and, in so doing, pave the way for the rest of the country. Presumably congestion charges will go in the bin along with the ridiculous smoking prohibition. Both can be done under a green agenda: the former to obviate the need for buses, which Ken was going to tax because they are so polluting; the latter to prevent the emissions from millions of patio heaters in the smoking ghettos. Best of British Boris.

  31. raincoaster: “Rough someone up? Perish the thought!”

    Just dropped by as I understand he’s going for mayor, and couldn’t help noticing that Johnson was recorded agreeing to find a journalist’s contact details so old Etonian friend Guppy could have the man beaten up.

    So “roughing up” is very apposite.

  32. Presumably congestion charges will go in the bin along with the ridiculous smoking prohibition.

    Well, I doubt the congestion charge will be changed, it makes a lot of sense, and quite a few people are in favour of it. We’ll see. The Mayor doesn’t have the authority to overturn the smoking ban though, it’s an Act of Parliament and applies nationwide.

  33. Boris made a visit to Shepherds Bush, the local community made their views known about our transport system and local market.

    Boris was warmly welcomed, it is refreshing to have an open discussion with a politician, eager to make changes beneficial to local communities.

    We hope to see some regeneration in our town centre, hopefuly Boris will put pressure on TfL to cooperate with our community, to allow us a real say in what is needed in our town centre.

  34. Boris, you’re as daft as a brush. Absolutely as daft as a brush. But – you’ll probably try and cut crime, improve at least the look of the place, try and get rid of lots of the hideous London ‘street-furniture’ – the squillions of stupid signs telling us don’t-do-this and don’t-do-that, be-scared-of-this, worry-about-that – and so you’re worth a punt. Also, you’re not one of those drab, colourless, humourless, intense and bloody-boring bureaucrats a la Ken. So, defintely worth a punt.

  35. I used to be on a ‘Strictly Labour Party Supporter’ diet… until now.
    Although I’m a bit too young to understand in depth about politics, I prefer Johnson for the following reasons;
    1. Johnson’s jokes are much funnier than Tony Blair’s were, and for Ken Livingstone – he is a joke himself!
    2. Even though some may not take Johnson seriously for being a candidate for Mayor judging by his application form, he does actually make some good points which some voters may be able to relate to
    3. And finally, he looks hilarious with his blonde hair and funny face. That would be great for the days that London on a whole is feeling lowly. Just a glimpse of Johnson on the TV would brighten up anyone’s day…I hope

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