Why does Boris Johnson get under my skin? Why is he the sort of politician that I don't trust and have a strong aversion too?
Firstly to be fair, Boris is a very talented guy: extremely clever, hard working, an excellent speaker, youthful, enthusiastic, funny and well educated (actually these last two are more debatable).
However the are a lot of highly talented people in London and let’s get to some of negative images / ideas I have about Boris:
1) His politics
On numerous occasions I have heard Boris speak (mostly on radio4) and he says things which make me want to shout and scream at my radio ;-) A few ‘which really stick in mind’ are his attacks on the smoking ban, congestion charging and the Kyoto accord. The first two are in my view are excellent policies making city living cleaner, safer and greener. Over the years Boris has tuned down his opposition to these broadly popular policies. To be kind, Boris does like to play the devils advocate sometimes on these debating programs. However he has shown his true colours – an upper class fool who has little idea about inner-city and/or metropolitan life for the less affluent?
2) An old fashioned racist?
Some very disturbing headlines:
"How can the Conservative party seek to gain credibility among black people while referring to them, as Boris Johnson has done, as 'picaninnies', and Africans as having 'watermelon smiles'?”
“Boris Johnson apologised again over race issues today after he was accused of condoning an article that claimed black people have a lower IQ.”
3) Attack on Liverpool
What more I can add …
Boris Johnson has been ordered to visit Liverpool to apologise in person for his magazine article that criticised the city's grief over Ken Bigley.
The Tory MP wrote in an editorial in The Spectator that the city was wallowing in "disproportionate" grief for Mr Bigley, who was killed in Iraq.
4) Private life
In France affairs are tolerated and private life is kept private. However here in the UK, we splash sensational stories and pictures from people private lives and past misdemeanours, all over the press. I’m uncomfortable with this practice but on the other hand French politicians are notoriously corrupt and have it too easy. Clearly there is a difficult balancing act here. However I am not convinced that Boris is a decent man?
So what about Ken?
Quite simply: a good guy with good ideas for London. A very decent man …
There is one area I would like to discuss, I think Ken gets a lot of unfair press: there are a lot of conservatives who will say anything to mock him. One case of this was Ken’s comments about the paparazzi and the practice of door-stepping being like “nazi concentration camp guards”. OK nazi is a taboo word and as a seasoned politician Ken should have known not to used it (although the right-wing press who have hounded Ken on this comment also hate ‘political correctness’ – now that’s duplicity!). But basically, Ken is right, the paparazzi behave like scum.
Anyway now the votes are nearly all cast and I’m a little sad as the polls suggest that Ken will lose…
NB Tragically in the mid 90s, about year before Diana death I started predicting that the daily press houndine and car-chases around London would lead to a tragic accident. Everyday I would see the press pictures and I knew what was going on was deeply wrong and it made me sad, angry, frustrated that it was so obviously wrong and dangerous but no one was able to stop the press witch hunt - until it would be too late …
NB2 Under French privacy law, not only does this protect immoral politicians but if Diana had been French and lived in France, it could have stopped the press harassment?
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