Boris Johnson – what the hell are we doing
I’m not a massive Ken Livingstone fan, but it’s the lesser of too evils as far as I am concerned. Too bad, “BoJo” got in.
On the one hand I am impressed by the record turnout in London, 45% is no mean feat. On the other, it concerns me that this turn out has much to do with the presidential style campaigning of the London mayoral elections and the personality war that it has become (or was always intended to be when Tony Blair kicked it all off again).
The real danger of voting on personalities is that people willingly vote for people who amuse them more than the other candidate. Ken Livingstone is less amusing, being quirky but seen as autocratic and a bit socially inept. Boris on the otherhand, is admired as a student pin-up, amusing like a typical un-PC grandad and at best, a bumbling Etonian fool. However, this view of BoJo (better nickname than BJ?) has a large part to play in his electability – we ignore his worst traits. Like his obvious racism. His blatant homophobia.
On same-sex marriage -
“If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.” or “Gay marriage can only ever be a ludicrous parody of the real thing”
On Africans:
On Africa in 2002, when Blair visited Congo: “No doubt, the AK47s will fall silent and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”
Maybe I should just lighten up, but I just don’t see the funny side.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
It’s very unfunny, isn’t it?
At the very least, anyone that *doesn’t realise* quotes such as these will come back to haunt him isn’t clever enough to run a piss up in a brewery, let alone a city like London. The fact he has no concept how Londoners that aren’t JUST LIKE HIM are living their lives is just baffling.
We can all kiss goodbye to affordable housing (unless we’re using the sliding scale of “affordable” where school costs 10 grand a term), buying a new fleet of double deckers will do very little to reduce the cost of public transport while minimising the congestion charge will actively encourage people to switch back to cars in central London.
That’s just the flag waving issues. There’ll be loads of little changes that make perfect sense in BoJo land but will eventually chip away at people’s choices. Aaaaargh!
May 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I haven’t read that much about BoJo, but you aptly matched my tabloid-powered-viewpoint of him with your “bumbling Etonian fool” coinage. Based on that I was surprised when I heard he had been put into power.
However, do you think that maybe he is only there because he comes with the Conservative party and not Labour? People are losing faith with Labour and so some will turn back to the Conservatives regardless of the person it comes with.