Category Archives: news

news, personal notes

Statement on The Spectator article

160 Comments

From Boris Johnson – sent to the Liverpool Daily Post this morning

It is quite an education to be at the centre of one of these sudden media firestorms: the cameras on the doorstep, the phone ringing off the hook, the endless requests for interviews, the shouted abuse.

By Saturday morning my poor Commons secretary was so overcome by the avalanche of electronic hate mail that she had to retire to her bed. And yet I can’t really pretend to be surprised.

We had a firestorm because we had an editorial in the magazine that was frankly incendiary, and I have no one to blame but myself.

I am the editor. I put it there. I must now take responsibility for enraging my party leader, alienating the people of a great city, and incurring the anger of not a few of The Spectator’s readers.

What on earth was I thinking of?

How could I possibly have approved an attack on Liverpool?

Continue reading Statement on The Spectator article →

news

Radio 4 Any Questions

16 Comments

Hi

Provided I recover from the Party Conference – and the trains don’t grind to a halt and shoot the idea to pieces – I will be on Any Questions with Jonathan Dimbleby tonight at 8.00pm

Wish me luck

Best/yours etc

Boris

news

Seminar on current Arts issues

News from Arts Specialist *Jennifer Greenbury* working hard behind the scenes for the Shadow Arts Team

Boris is chairing a seminar on current related arts issues at The National Gallery on Monday 15th November.

The seminar – kindly hosted and sponsored by solicitors, Farrer & Co, and accountants, haysmacintyre – will focus on the Conservative Party’s ideas; particularly in the arena of taxation, where effective funding of the Arts could be significantly improved. The seminar is being introduced by Baroness Buscombe, Shadow Arts Minister in the Lords. The speakers are John Whittingdale OBE MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who will speak on “The Conservatives and the Arts”, and Partners from Farrer & Co and haysmacintyre who will focus on a range of relevant and topical taxation issues. Howard Flight MP, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party (Special Envoy to the City of London), will join the panel to answer questions and contribute to what should be a lively and productive discussion.

After the seminar there will be a drinks reception followed by a private viewing of The National Gallery’s forthcoming Raphael Exhibition.

Enquiries to Seminar Organisers: Jennifer Greenbury or Olly.

news, personal notes

Boris reporting for duty

101 Comments

Hi folks, this is Boris Johnson here. Welcome to my blogsite, where I hope to be blogging for some time to come. You may ask yourself why on earth I am filling the electronic ether with yet more of my stuff, given that I can already be discovered in the pages of the Henley Standard, Daily Telegraph, Spectator etc.

It is a damn good question.

The answer is that very persuasive man called Tim has recently been to my office in the Commons. He told me that blogging is the future. He spoke of the online community, and its rapid expansion. He said that newspapers were outmoded.

He spoke of a new kind of politics. He waved his hands and rolled his eyes. So I have acceded to his advice, and begun to blog.

Tim tells me that the idea is that I fall out of bed every morning, blazing with inspiration, and thunder out 3000 words on the issue of the hour, so generating a pandemic internet controversy. I am not sure, frankly, that I will manage that. But I hope that there will be some other bloggers out there who may feel moved to give me some advice – not least on the funding of the Arts, to which I am now devoting my meditations.

Must blog off for the time being.