April 11, 2008
Boris Johnson: Capital Fellow
Boris Johnson is not an easy man to confront. On the eve of London’s mayoral elections we met in the coffee shop of a Marriott Hotel, just along the corridor from his campaign headquarters in County Hall. Johnson bustled in and ordered a cup of tea. He was his usual disarming, dishevelled self. But it was my task to ignore all that – and to tell him that many of his friends greet the idea of Mayor Johnson with a mixture of hilarity and horror. “They all like you,” I said wheedlingly, “but they all kind of laugh at the idea of you as mayor … They say you are incredibly disorganised.”
Johnson looked a little pained at this, and took the only line open to him – stout denial. “I think I’m extremely well organised and always have been – and achieve a fantastic amount. I work harder than almost anybody else I know. And I take these criticisms in the loving spirit with which I’m sure they’re meant.”
The remainder of this article can be read here. Please post comments below.
Johnson obviously has the talent to be all things to all people. With Britain:The Hedge Fund model now obsolete, Ringmaster to the World (”keep ‘em movin’ through”) could do the trick. Anything is worth a try.
Posted by: Machiavelli | April 12th, 2008 at 3:11 pm | Report this commentIt seems to me that Johnson is not serious a contender.
Having seem him at the stump in previous elections he has been in good humour and full of ideas. This campaing has seem him bleating on about bendy buses and something about taking away free transport away from naughty children. Both policies are virtually bound to fail.
Gideon points out the Livingston is self imploding and Johnson is on a roll, this was the case a month ago but now the reverse in happening. Johnson is slowly losing the press (apart from the Standard) and took part in a mayoral debate with Newnight that was worthy Alan Partridge.
There can only be two reasons for this decline
1) Johnson is not really interested in the job - the idea of hosting committees and dealing with tfl, unions and the olympic fiasco fill him with dread. He is this years Frank Dobson he might be thinking “the sooner it is over the better”
2) Johnson is purely a well connected toff who like Bill Deedes is happiest pounding away on a keyboard or being funny with the tory faithful. When it comes to the crunch he is just not up to the job and deep down he knows this.
Posted by: robr | April 14th, 2008 at 3:54 pm | Report this commentBy buying a bus or underground ticket in London I fund the FARC in Colombia because of the Livingstone - Chavez deal. How much worse than that can Johnson really be?
When Livingstone ran for mayor many were alarmed by the prospect as well, perhaps for London itself Livingstone hasn’t been bad but his meddling in foreign affairs left a dangerous precedent.
Johnson will be closer to the tories than Livingstone was to labour and perhaps we will see a more responsible office than what one would expect from classical Boris or actual Ken.
Posted by: Felix Drost | April 14th, 2008 at 4:41 pm | Report this comment[…] my magazine piece on Boris I made much of the idea that we might not want Mayor Johnson in charge, next time […]
Posted by: FT.com | Gideon Rachman’s Blog | The meaning of Boris’s victory | May 3rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm | Report this commentTo robr
Posted by: chris | May 8th, 2008 at 1:52 pm | Report this commentIsn’t buying a coke product, or keeping companies like RioTinto or Anglo-American Oil close to Londons heart slighty more detrimental to the people of colombia? Most murders and massacres in Colombia, according to their own governemnt reports, are carried out by paramilitaries. These are directly employed by coca-cola and extractative industries to protect the assets of foreign investment. I am not condoning FARC activities, however they pale in comparrison with paramilitary atrocities. The paramilitaries are aided by the governemnt and military (search recent parapoliticos scandal) in carrying out mass murder campaigns; supporting business operations, as Johnson is wont to do, ultimately will have a much graver impact…just it probably won’t be reported in the financial times.