Boris Johnson

[trousers]

Another splendid speech at the Tory party conference just now.

 

Any man that can get "badger hair shaving brushes" into a political speech is a genius.

 

He actually toned down the buffoon 'act' today.

 

If this man isn't prime mininster sometime over the next 10 years I shall weep into my porridge.

[trousers]

"The prime minister and I danced Gangnam style the other day," Boris Johnson says, adding that Koreans watch the rapper's video on TVs with "aerials made in London".

 

"Every single chocolate Hob Nob in the world is made in London," the mayor proclaims.

[bridge too far]

He's very funny and very endearing and I find him hugely entertaining.

 

But PM? Lawks a mercy! Far too much of a loose cannon IMO.

[trousers]

He's very funny and very endearing and I find him hugely entertaining.

 

But PM? Lawks a mercy! Far too much of a loose cannon IMO.

 

Can't do any worse than a lot of the 'straight men' we've had over the last 50 years....surely?

[Doctoroncall]

He's very funny and very endearing and I find him hugely entertaining.

 

But PM? Lawks a mercy! Far too much of a loose cannon IMO.

 

Can do no worse...! A jolly PM would be nice to have (regardless of political affiliation).

[trousers]

http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2012/10/09/boris-johnson-speech-in-full

 

Thank you first for all you did to make sure that we Conservatives won in London this year and thanks to that intrepid expeditionary force of volunteers from around the country. The busloads from Herefordshire who crossed deep along the Ho Chi Minh trail into Hackney where they of course found people’s problems aren’t really so very different after all.

 

You showed that we can overcome a Labour lead and win even in places Ed and co are so cocky as to think they own. And if we can win in the middle of a recession and wipe out a 17 point Labour poll lead then I know that David Cameron will win in 2015.

When the economy has turned round and people are benefiting in jobs and growth from the firm leadership you have shown and the tough decisions you have taken.

 

And I was pleased to see the other day that you have called me a blond haired mop. A mop. Well if I am a mop then you are a broom. A broom that is cleaning up the mess left by the Labour government and a fantastic job you are doing. I thank you and congratulate you and your colleagues - George Osborne the dustpan, Gove the J cloth etc

 

Because for the last hundred years it has been the historic function of Conservatives to be the household implements after the Labour binge has got out of control.

 

And it is thanks to Conservatives here in this hall that I was allowed to bask in the glory - often wholly undeserved, I am afraid, but never mind - of the greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games that have ever been held.

 

I think anthropologists will look back with awe at the change that took place in our national mood - the sudden switcheroo from the gloom of the previous weeks.

 

You remember what they were saying? When the buses were on strike and the taxi drivers were blockading the west end. And thousands of the security staff seemed mysteriously to have found better things to do. And the weather men were predicting truly cataclysmic inundations on the night of the opening ceremony. And then sometime in that first week it was as though a giant hormonal valve had been opened in the minds of the people. And the endorphins seemed to flow through the crowds. And down the tube trains like some benign contagion.

 

Until everyone was suffused with a kind of reddibrek glow of happiness and from then on it was as if nothing could go wrong. And the G4s guys turned up after all. And five million people were showed to their seats without delay. And the volunteers revealed a kindness and a friendliness that we had almost forgotten. And the tube trains ran with metronomic efficiency. The Jubilee line going three miles an hour faster than they did when I was elected. And the sociologists will write learned papers on that sudden feeling that gripped us all. Was it eudaimonia, euphoria, eupepsia or some other Greek word beginning with EU? You name it

 

Was it relief? It was surprise, wasn’t it? There we were, little old us, the country that made such a Horlicks of the Millennium Dome. Putting on a flawless performance of the most logistically difficult thing you can ask a country to do in peacetime. And some of us were frankly flabbergasted, gobsmacked.

 

And I want you to hold that thought, remember that feeling of surprise – because, that surprise is revealing of our chronic tendency in this country to underestimate what we can do. And we need now to learn the lessons of the Olympics and Paralympics. The moment when we collectively rediscovered that we are a can-do country. A creative, confident, can-do country.

 

The Olympics succeeded because we planned for years and we worked together. Public sector and private sector. And we put aside party differences. And yes this is the right moment to say thank you to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Tessa Jowell. And yes, Ken Livingstone. Ken old chum there is no coming back from that one. You have just been clapped at Tory party conference. As well as to Seb Coe and Paul Deighton and Hugh Robertson and David Higgins and John Armitt

 

But for the success of these Olympics there is one Conservative we need to thank today. One Prime Minister who loves sport and who to this day is championing cricket in inner London. Oh yes. It is thanks to John Major, who put in the Lottery that we have gone from one gold medal in 1996 to the sporting superpower we are today.

 

And we created the conditions in training and infrastructure that allowed our young people to take on the best of the rest of the world and do better than them. We gave them the stages to perform on. The stadia in which they could show their competitive genius. And that is exactly what we have to do with the economy today.

 

I am a Conservative. I believe in a low-tax and low-regulation economy and I believe that as far as possible government needs to make life easy. For those who get up at 5 to get their shops or businesses ready - the strivers, the strugglers - whatever the vogue word is for them today. We know who they are, and there are many in this room. The backbone of the UK economy as Napoleon almost said.

 

Britain is a nation of small and medium-sized enterprises and they make up 75 per cent of the London economy. And it is these businesses that have the capacity to grow. To take on young people, to expand and become world-beaters. And we need to think, every day, what we can do to create the right conditions for them to flourish. And to become more than medium-sized. To become the gold medallists of the global economy

For the last four years my team in City Hall has been working – as you have been working, in Government - to fight the recession and to create the conditions for a dynamic recovery.

 

And yes, we One Nation Conservatives are well aware that in a society where the gap between rich and poor has been growing – as it did under Labour – that we have to look first to the poorest and the neediest and those who cannot easily compete and that is why I am so proud that we have expanded the London Living Wage. Now paid – entirely voluntarily - by about 250 of the s w a n k iest banks, law and accountancy firms in London putting about £60m into the pockets of some of the lowest paid people in London.

Edited 9 October, 2012 by trousers

[trousers]

We have protected or expanded every travel concession for young people, for people in search of work, for the disabled and we have taken Londoners off the age escalator and restored the 24 hour Freedom Pass. And I apologise to the people of Labour-run Birmingham as I generally and periodically apologise to so many other cities but that is a privilege that older people have only in Tory-run London. And we are delivering it on November 1 as I promised because we have been able so to manage the budget that we have cut £3bn in waste and have not only frozen council tax over the last four years but are now cutting our share by ten per cent.

 

But when times have been tough and when the city has been afflicted by riots barely one year ago then we need to remember that there is one virtually all-purpose cure for want and squalor and anger and deprivation, better than more benefits, better than police crackdowns and that is a job. The self-esteem, the excitement, the fun, the human interaction and competition that a job can offer. Before you even talk about the money.

 

London is an amazing creator of new jobs. But they don’t always go to kids who grow up in London and we need to work out why and we need to look at what is happening in our schools. I am a passionate supporter of Michael Gove’s free schools revolution parents, teachers, charities are coming together to create wonderful new places of learning, like Toby Young’s West London Free school in Hammersmith or the East London Science school, led by a formidable physics teacher called Dave Perks who wants all his pupils to learn triple sciences so that they can apply for top universities and the kind of high skill jobs created by the London economy.

 

And I don’t want a handful of these schools. I want dozens of them, right across the capital. So I can announce today that I am setting up New Schools for London to help find the sites that they need. And we are opening up the GLA’s property portfolio to find the site.

 

And I want to boost the teaching of the Stem subjects because it is an utter scandal that we are going through a golden age of engineering projects and yet this country is short of about 50,000 engineers and there are parts of London where A level physics or advanced Maths are hardly taught. And with so many school leavers failing to find a job we are seeing a tragic waste of talent 54,000 18-24 year olds on the dole.

And that is why we are driving forward a massive programme of apprenticeships.

 

We have done 76,000, and we are going to do 250,000 over this four year term and businesses won’t invest and shops won’t open unless they are confident that the place is safe. And so we have brought crime down by 12 per cent. And Bernard Hogan Howe has committed to reducing it by a further 20 per cent over the next four years. A further 20 per cent over the next four years. And in the last year the murder rate has fallen yet again to levels not seen since the 1960s. And it is no disrespect to my old friend Mike Bloomberg to say you are four times more likely to be murdered in New York as you are in London

 

And for business to flourish they need employees who can afford to live within a reasonable commuting time from their place of work and so a job-creating economy needs good housing and good transport. And that is why we are not only building record numbers of affordable homes – 54,000 over the last four years – far more than Ken Livingstone

 

But we have this week set out a new plan. To help the struggling middle to buy their homes. And if we invest in transport then we can not only drive the creation of thousands of new jobs in London - I am thinking of Battersea or Tottenham or Croydon - but we drive jobs across the country.

 

I am pleased to inform you, Conference, that since we last spoke I have kept my promise to Londoners and introduced a new generation hop-on hop-off replacement for the Routemaster. They are the cleanest greenest new bus in Europe. They have conductors and unlike the hopeless broken-backed diplodocus of a bendy bus which was made in Germany, they are made in the United Kingdom. Aand that Ballymena factory has just received the biggest single order in its history. 608 of these great big dome-browed scarlet beasts. And unlike the hopeless broken-backed diplodocus of a bendy bus which was made in Germany, they are made in the United Kingdom.

 

And when we buy new trains we drive jobs in Derby. Conductor rail from Chard. CCTV from Warwick. Railway sleepers from Boston. And if we build that platform for growth – with better education, with safer street, with more housing and better transport infrastructure then the private sector will produce amazing and world-beating results

 

Go to tech city and see young Londoners devising apps so that teenagers in America can watch movies on their Xbox. Go to Soho and see them doing the special effects for so called Hollywood movies When they eat cake on the champs elysees, they eat cake made in London. When they watch Gangnam style on their TVs in Korea, they watch it on TV aerials made in London. The dutch ride bicycles made in London. The Brazilians use mosquito repellent made in London. Every single chocolate hobnob in the world is made in London. We export everything from badger shaving brushes to ballet shoes. And as I look ahead I am filled with confidence about the capital

 

We will sort out our aviation capacity problem. We will create new river crossings. We will regenerate East London and we will put in air conditioned and driverless trains. When if Bob Crow says his RMT drivers won’t test drive the driverless trains. We will continue to expand cycle hire and plant thousands of trees.

 

We have the right time zone the right language and we have the right government in Westminster and I will fight to keep it there.

We fought to keep London from lurching back into the grip of a Marxist cabal of taxpayer-funded chateauneuf du pape swilling tax minimisers and bendy bus fetishist.

 

I will fight to keep this country from lurching back into the grip of the two Eds. Unreformed, unpunished, unrepentant about what they did to the economy and the deficit they racked up.

 

We need to go forward now from the age of Excess under Labour. Through the age of austerity to a new age of Enterprise in which we do what we did in the Olympics and build a world-beating platform for Britain for British people and businesses to compete and win and we need to do it now under the Conservatives and we will and it begins here

...

[dubai_phil]

Forgetting the Politics for one moment, at least when he opens his mouth he says something it's normally come from inside his own brain as opposed to a Spin Doctor.

 

Hence the clusterf**ks he makes, but also why he is a breath of fresh air.

 

He says what people think not what somebody is telling him the Sponsors/Stakeholder etc want to hear

 

I enjoy his rants in the Torygraph.

 

Would he make a good PM?

 

When did UK last have one of those to compare against?

[trousers]

Would he make a good PM?

 

When did UK last have one of those to compare against?

 

1979 - 1992

[moonraker]

Boris is a breath of fresh air, the current political class are soulless, uninspiring and boring, shame he's a Tory.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

I think he's a genius and a wordsmith, and I would vote him in right now.

[alpine_saint]

Forgetting the Politics for one moment, at least when he opens his mouth he says something it's normally come from inside his own brain as opposed to a Spin Doctor.

 

Hence the clusterf**ks he makes, but also why he is a breath of fresh air.

 

He says what people think not what somebody is telling him the Sponsors/Stakeholder etc want to hear

 

I enjoy his rants in the Torygraph.

 

Would he make a good PM?

 

When did UK last have one of those to compare against?

 

Superb.

 

Lets face it, John Major looks like a great PM now considering the past and present 3 incumbents.

 

As for Boris, I would give him a go as PM. I really like the straight-speaking rebellious streak he has. He would go down a storm in EU summits.

[Hatch]

I love Boris.

 

[notnowcato]

He's a ccok.

 

He's a ccok amongst ccoks.

[scotty]

Personally, I cant stand him. Putting that aside, wouldn't his previous forays into marital infidelity more or less rule him out as tory leader?

[hypochondriac]

Can do no worse...! A jolly PM would be nice to have (regardless of political affiliation).

 

Exactly. People are scared of change, why should the pm be a dullard? Boris would make a refreshing change.

[Patrick Bateman]

Superb.

 

Lets face it, John Major looks like a great PM now considering the past and present 3 incumbents.

 

As for Boris, I would give him a go as PM. I really like the straight-speaking rebellious streak he has. He would go down a storm in EU summits.

 

Totally agree! Was it Jonny Bognor who posted the political compass a few years ago? I think Boris appeals to a broader range on that compass than (Hello) Dave, (Sheepdog) Nick and (Gromit) Milliband!!

 

I think Boris is actually more, well, normal. I honestly think that. I think being Mayor of London has helped him be far more in tune (although possible London-centric) with people than the other three current "choices".

[hypochondriac]

Boris puts the pride back into being British. He is the outstanding candidate for prime minister and I would campaign on his behalf.

[Thedelldays]

I would vote for Boris... F'sure

[View From The Top]

Boris is a breath of fresh air, the current political class are soulless, uninspiring and boring, shame he's a Tory.

 

+1.

[Ken Tone]

Putting aside party poitical allegiances, it is fascinating that a man who makes a thing of projecting a persona as a bit of a buffoon has developed such a strong following. He has good academic qulaficatins and use to edit a major serious magazine, so is presumably intelligent, yet seems actually to try to appear daft at times.

 

The only time I've ever come across him 'live' was when he gave a speech to a fairly small group I was part of. He talked in a very charming manner but with content that was frankly absolute rubbish, displaying a frightening level of factual ignorance of his topic, as opposed to stupidity, yet many in the audience just chuckled and said ... "well that's Boris". He is forgiven things that no other politician could get away with.

[Doctoroncall]

1979 - 1992

 

No, just No!

[alpine_saint]

Putting aside party poitical allegiances, it is fascinating that a man who makes a thing of projecting a persona as a bit of a buffoon has developed such a strong following. He has good academic qulaficatins and use to edit a major serious magazine, so is presumably intelligent, yet seems actually to try to appear daft at times.

 

The only time I've ever come across him 'live' was when he gave a speech to a fairly small group I was part of. He talked in a very charming manner but with content that was frankly absolute rubbish, displaying a frightening level of factual ignorance of his topic, as opposed to stupidity, yet many in the audience just chuckled and said ... "well that's Boris". He is forgiven things that no other politician could get away with.

 

Indeed the relationship between him and the public is somewhat unique in British politics.

 

In a way, he reminds me of another Boris. The guy who brought stood up to the communists in Russia 20-odd years ago.

[solentstars]

1979 - 1992

oh yes the petty nasty party decade of hate

[alpine_saint]

LOL, I do like his comments about the skate sh*t-hole....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson

[solentstars]

Boris puts the pride back into being British. He is the outstanding candidate for prime minister and I would campaign on his behalf.

to be fair all party's don,t seem to have characters now days they all look the same .

[hypochondriac]

to be fair all party's don,t seem to have characters now days they all look the same .

 

I agree. That is why I love him and think he would be great. Plus he is fiercely proud to be British. I to my mind there is no one better.

[trousers]

Maybe Boris should go for President of the USA if he doesn't get a chance at PM (he was born in New York so qualifies)

[trousers]

LOL, I do like his comments about the skate sh*t-hole....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson

 

Portsmouth

 

In April 2007 Johnson was called upon to resign by the MPs for the city of Portsmouth after claiming in a column for GQ that the city was "one of the most depressed towns in Southern England, a place that is arguably too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs"

 

[rooney]

I watched his Interview with Andrew Neil on Daily Politics today after his speech. He was floundering on the questions raised and that is why he will never be Prime Minister. I am sure Milliband and Co would be delighted if he put himself forward.

[Thedelldays]

I watched his Interview with Andrew Neil on Daily Politics today after his speech. He was floundering on the questions raised and that is why he will never be Prime Minister. I am sure Milliband and Co would be delighted if he put himself forward.

 

Yeah

 

Cos milliband is great at answering questions

 

Anyone have any idea of any labour policies yet?

[aintforever]

He says funny things, if that qualifies him to be PM then maybe Frankie Boyle should give it a shot.

[krissyboy31]

Have the feeling that Cameron is very reluctant to have him anywhere near. Great for the Tory's morale but for Cameron, Boris is more popular than he could ever dream to be.

[CB Saint]

but with content that was frankly absolute rubbish,

 

As opposed to any other politician?

 

He is great at a local level, however he is going to need a couple of ministerial roles to show us he can deliver at a more serious level.

 

Still think it is all part of a long term strategy for him

[dubai_phil]

Putting aside party poitical allegiances, it is fascinating that a man who makes a thing of projecting a persona as a bit of a buffoon has developed such a strong following. He has good academic qulaficatins and use to edit a major serious magazine, so is presumably intelligent, yet seems actually to try to appear daft at times.

 

The only time I've ever come across him 'live' was when he gave a speech to a fairly small group I was part of. He talked in a very charming manner but with content that was frankly absolute rubbish, displaying a frightening level of factual ignorance of his topic, as opposed to stupidity, yet many in the audience just chuckled and said ... "well that's Boris". He is forgiven things that no other politician could get away with.

 

I have only ever listened to one speech by a Politician that had sensible, serious and deep content. It was educational, entertaining and absorbing. The man was a "genius" by current Politician standards.

 

It was actually about managing Monetary Policy and the Macro Economy. He understood the dynamics of how Politicaly inspired decisions had really harmful effects on us, the "General" public.

 

Such a shame that the man who gave the speech was Enoch Powell, and instead of giving it to a wide audience he was reduced to giving it to people studying Economics at College.

 

Even though it was more than a decade after "That Speech" we still had to wade through protesters outside the college.

 

I like Boris, with a good team behind him he can do a job and The Olympics are a shining example of that. The PROBLEM will be that at the next level, that team behind him will be made up of people with "Special Interests" and "Lobbies".

 

That is a whole different ball game to delivering a project on time, and with his "buffoonery" I worry that he is one mis-placed joke away from a disaster.

 

Still don't see anyone better out there though.

[itchen]

Ah, Boris the buffoon with his rehearsed ad libs and buffoon schtick. This is the man who has seen the forced resignations of, I think, three of his choices as deputy mayors in London. A man happy to take credit for the work of others - the Olympics and "Boris bikes" simply followed on from Ken Livingstone's work. A man incapable of marital fidelity. But, most importantly, a man prepared to hand over the details of a journalist to convicted old-Etonian fraudster Darius Guppy so that the journalist could be beaten up. Yep, surely a man fit to serve as PM.

 

More info here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/sonia-purnell-boris-johnson-not-prime-minister-material and here:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-callhttp://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-call

[Tokyo-Saint]

Ah, Boris the buffoon with his rehearsed ad libs and buffoon schtick. This is the man who has seen the forced resignations of, I think, three of his choices as deputy mayors in London. A man happy to take credit for the work of others - the Olympics and "Boris bikes" simply followed on from Ken Livingstone's work. A man incapable of marital fidelity. But, most importantly, a man prepared to hand over the details of a journalist to convicted old-Etonian fraudster Darius Guppy so that the journalist could be beaten up. Yep, surely a man fit to serve as PM.

 

More info here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/sonia-purnell-boris-johnson-not-prime-minister-material and here:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-callhttp://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-call

 

Yeah but he's posh and funny with floppy hair and therefore the closest thing we have to Hugh Grant in four weddings (except for the funny bit).

 

Let's get him in and give it a go. If he doesn't work, let's get the granny off Downton. She is posh and funny but without the floppy hair. I'm sure dune will approve up in forum heaven.

[Thedelldays]

Ah, Boris the buffoon with his rehearsed ad libs and buffoon schtick. This is the man who has seen the forced resignations of, I think, three of his choices as deputy mayors in London. A man happy to take credit for the work of others - the Olympics and "Boris bikes" simply followed on from Ken Livingstone's work. A man incapable of marital fidelity. But, most importantly, a man prepared to hand over the details of a journalist to convicted old-Etonian fraudster Darius Guppy so that the journalist could be beaten up. Yep, surely a man fit to serve as PM.

 

More info here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/sonia-purnell-boris-johnson-not-prime-minister-material and here:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-callhttp://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-call

 

More so than anyone of the alternatives

[Lord Duckhunter]

He went to the same primary school as Ed Milliband (who as we know from his wonderful speech, is just an ordinary joe), surprised he didn't put it in his speech.

[Fuengirola Saint]

Ah, Boris the buffoon with his rehearsed ad libs and buffoon schtick. This is the man who has seen the forced resignations of, I think, three of his choices as deputy mayors in London. A man happy to take credit for the work of others - the Olympics and "Boris bikes" simply followed on from Ken Livingstone's work. A man incapable of marital fidelity. But, most importantly, a man prepared to hand over the details of a journalist to convicted old-Etonian fraudster Darius Guppy so that the journalist could be beaten up. Yep, surely a man fit to serve as PM.

 

More info here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/sonia-purnell-boris-johnson-not-prime-minister-material and here:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-callhttp://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-call

 

Thank god there is someone out there who can see this faux buffon for what he really is! C'mon people get your heads out of your a r s e s, he's laughing his cojones off at you lot fawning all over him.

[pap]

Ah, Boris the buffoon with his rehearsed ad libs and buffoon schtick. This is the man who has seen the forced resignations of, I think, three of his choices as deputy mayors in London. A man happy to take credit for the work of others - the Olympics and "Boris bikes" simply followed on from Ken Livingstone's work. A man incapable of marital fidelity. But, most importantly, a man prepared to hand over the details of a journalist to convicted old-Etonian fraudster Darius Guppy so that the journalist could be beaten up. Yep, surely a man fit to serve as PM.

 

More info here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/sonia-purnell-boris-johnson-not-prime-minister-material and here:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-callhttp://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-trouble-with-boris-darius-guppy-phone-call

 

Boris' popularity stems from the fact that he's more celebrity than politician. Most people are very interested in celebrities and not very clued up on politicians.

 

Thing is, he's not a great example of either. You are completely correct to point out the numerous and verifiable problems that he has had in London. Boris is probably the biggest celebrity in politics, but a minnow in the wider world of fame.

 

Not only do people like him, but they're also prepared to dismiss any genuine criticism as smears from the Cameron camp. FWIW, I've always enjoyed watching the chap on TV, but not sure whether he's the right bloke to lead the country.

[dubai_phil]

Thank god there is someone out there who can see this faux buffon for what he really is! C'mon people get your heads out of your a r s e s, he's laughing his cojones off at you lot fawning all over him.

 

He is a Western Politician.

 

Give me a Dictatorial Monarchy any day of the week

[RedAndWhite91]

Boris is great. I'm no Tory, but I'd vote for him.

[Ken Tone]

I have only ever listened to one speech by a Politician that had sensible, serious and deep content. It was educational, entertaining and absorbing. The man was a "genius" by current Politician standards.

 

It was actually about managing Monetary Policy and the Macro Economy. He understood the dynamics of how Politicaly inspired decisions had really harmful effects on us, the "General" public.

 

Such a shame that the man who gave the speech was Enoch Powell, and instead of giving it to a wide audience he was reduced to giving it to people studying Economics at College.

 

Even though it was more than a decade after "That Speech" we still had to wade through protesters outside the college.

 

I like Boris, with a good team behind him he can do a job and The Olympics are a shining example of that. The PROBLEM will be that at the next level, that team behind him will be made up of people with "Special Interests" and "Lobbies".

 

That is a whole different ball game to delivering a project on time, and with his "buffoonery" I worry that he is one mis-placed joke away from a disaster.

 

Still don't see anyone better out there though.

 

I've met quite a few government ministers and listened to a large number of speeches. The one I referred to by Boris Johnson's was by far the most ignorant, in the literal sense. He simply knew virtually nothing about the topic he was speaking on, and had apparently done no research whatsoever. "Loose cannon" doesn't cover it

[saint1977]

Trouble with Boris is that his popularity is largely confined to south of Banbury. He's certainly trendy with sections of the London electorate and beyond but he's regarded as a buffoon in the north of England and the Tories would go back to their 1997 wipeout in Wales and Scotland. He'd probably win a leadership election with David Cameron were one possible in the party itself but not with the overall electorate, Cameron has broader electoral appeal despite a similar socio-economic background because he's percieved to be on the centre ground. I say' percieved' in Boris's case because beyond the humourous and self-depricating WGS-like soundbites, no-one knows what he stands for really. He'd have wider appeal in the US system.

 

Some decent ideas heard this week – on welfare and legal issues - but the Beecroft thing is just a weird smokescreen. Happened to chat with someone from the FSB and doesn't think many SMEs would bother with it as an administrative and costly faff that takes away from the focus on their productivity. Doesn't really tie in with Cameron's previous speeches on promoting flexible working either. I can't see much support for it from any part of the economy apart from Beecroft - and the original report was junk, full of heresay with no proper research or evidence/data - and one or two other extremists. Can't see that it fits into the rest of their policy programme.

[Lord Duckhunter]

I watched The Daily Politics yeasterday.

 

Andrew Neil is easily the best political interviewer around and makes polictians of all parties very uncomfortable with his akward questions. He asked Boris a lot of "no win" type questions (as he does) and Boris waffled a bit (as all polictians do). When Neil pointed out he wasn't answering the questions Boris said "I have to commend you on your tough line of questioning Andrew". It was only a little thing, but it came across as natural (well natural to Boris) and natural is what the public like about their MP's.

 

He is a toff, comes over as a toff, but it's him. Cameron is a toff, who is trying to fool people that he isn't and failing miserable. The only politicans who has managed to pull off that trick in my lifetime was Tony Blair.He went to Scotland's poshest school, then Oxford, but managed to convince people he was one of them.Anthony Charles Lynton Blair became good old Tony and managed to reinvent himself as one of the plebs.

[JustMike]

Portsmouth

 

In April 2007 Johnson was called upon to resign by the MPs for the city of Portsmouth after claiming in a column for GQ that the city was "one of the most depressed towns in Southern England, a place that is arguably too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs"

 

 

He'd get my vote just for that!

[Turkish]

He looks like a Swedish bloke that has eaten another Swedish bloke.

[saintfully]

Tool who lies and regularly cheats his wife and children. Nice chap.

[Kingsland Nick]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/boris-johnson-unfit-to-be-prime-minister