Boris

amacachi

About time this man who can being politics back to the masses in Britain got the recognition he deserves.

Overheal

?

silverharp

oh come on, he makes Tim nice but dim look credible.

Tails142

the guy is HILARIOUS

I cant believe he actually got elected

but I suppose livingstone was pretty contraversial aswell.

wasper

amacachi wrote: »

About time this man who can being politics back to the masses in Britain got the recognition he deserves.

Boris is the equivalent of Dustin the Turkey.

The_Minister

Yes.
Yes he is a dumb turkey.
That is how he earned a scholarship to Oxford...


.....oh wait.

mike65

Boris is no fool he simply plays the fool, I supect we'll see a different man from now on.
Judging from his comments yesterday it looks like he is going for an inclusive approach.

I guess this means no more chairing of HIGNFY and the chance of Red Ken in the seat.

Mike.

Jim_Are_Great

mike65 wrote: »

I guess this means no more chairing of HIGNFY

Yeah, that's a crying shame. His performances were always epic.

With a budget bigger than our whole country's, he'll surely have a good staff at least. He'd want to do something pretty awful to mess things up. And the mayor scarcely has enough power to do anything drastically wrong anyway.

I'd be proud to have him as my mayor.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Jim_Are_Great wrote: »

Yeah, that's a crying shame. His performances were always epic.

+1

Jim_Are_Great wrote: »

I'd be proud to have him as my mayor.

+1

I think a lot of people underestimate Boris, and of course the opposition deride him as a buffoon and a hopeless landed toff because of his eccentric persona, colourful personal life and Bullingdon membership at Oxford.

The reality is that he's a powerful intellect, he's experienced politically, has sound policies, and is a man of huge ambition. This is what is relevant. Not his private life.

...should really be PM.:D

Tigrrrr

Yes he should be PM. I heart Boris Johnson and want his hair, which is the most important thing about him.
He's controversial, daring, astute, personable and very intelligent, and I imagine he'll make a great Mayor for London.

Calina

Sean_K wrote: »

+1

+1

I think a lot of people underestimate Boris, and of course the opposition deride him as a buffoon and a hopeless landed toff because of his eccentric persona, colourful personal life and Bullingdon membership at Oxford.

The reality is that he's a powerful intellect, he's experienced politically, has sound policies, and is a man of huge ambition. This is what is relevant. Not his private life.

...should really be PM.:D

London seems to get the oddest candidates for mayor. That being said, while I have to say that Boris Johnson strikes me as somewhat idiosyncratic, I would have to say that you don't get to where he got without being extremely astute.

DadaKopf

I dunno. He's got good connections, probably. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Conservatives want to drag the office of mayor into disrepute.

I can't wait to see what crazy schemes he comes up with!

Can't imagine why he won. On one hand, I'd say it was a matter of 'a change is as good as a rest'. And, despite Red Ken doing lots of good, he also messed up. I'd say he was the victim of nearly 100% public transport ticket price inflation as general dissatisfaction with Labour.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if one of Boris' first initiatives is to do away with the 'communist' congestion charge. What a ludricrous proposition. I mean, good heavens.

This would be far funnier if I wasn't going to live in London in a few months time. At least he'll be able to tackle problems head on... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIUp19bBoA

Kevster

The responses here highlight a problem that has always plagued society: that too many people go along with what the 'mass' population believes, without judging for themselves.

Boris - on the exterior - is nothing special, and he isn't a good public speaker. That is no bearing on how good a politician he is and I cannot wait until everyone is proven wrong about how well he will do as London mayor.

nacho libre

Who can forget his famous line about the benefits of voting Tory:D

It will be interesting to see if his Zero Tolerance approach to crime works.

serfboard

nacho libre wrote: »

It will be interesting to see if his Zero Tolerance approach to crime works.

It won't because it won't be implemented. You may remember that eejit John O'Donoghue proposed that here and it was dropped fast after he got into office. This was because the Guards here, and the Met in London, recognise the usefulness of a caution system rather than a "lock 'em all up" approach for every little misdemeanour.

jank

serfboard wrote: »

It won't because it won't be implemented. You may remember that eejit John O'Donoghue proposed that here and it was dropped fast after he got into office. This was because the Guards here, and the Met in London, recognise the usefulness of a caution system rather than a "lock 'em all up" approach for every little misdemeanour.

What benfits are they?

Jim_Are_Great

Kevster wrote:

I cannot wait until everyone is proven wrong about how well he will do as London mayor.

Why do you think that, Kev?

DadaKopf wrote:

And I wouldn't be surprised if the Conservatives want to drag the office of mayor into disrepute.

I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility. But I wouldn't be surprised if he actually had the opposite effect. Plus, the idea that the conservatives ran him as a joke candidate to drag down the office isn't easily reconciled with his staggering poll performance. Another possibility is that the Tories ran him as a mayoral candidate because some of the bigwigs were worried about his popularity, and, coupled with falling Labour popularity in the run-up to the general elections, felt safer with him out of the shadow cabinet.

Sean K wrote:

...should really be PM.

+1

OPENROAD

mike65 wrote: »

Boris is no fool he simply plays the fool, I supect we'll see a different man from now on.
Mike.

Very true. Boris is a high profile individual and as such was always going to attract votes, his campaign went from strength to strength as the campaign went on.

Boris has some excellent policies which I am looking forward to seeing him implement. He is putting together an excellent back room staff and think people will be surprised. Ken did a good job as mayor particularly in his first term, but he had gone stale by the end of the second. Of course like anyone Boris will be judged on what he achieves over the course of his term. As I said time will tell and he will be judged by results but people should not dismiss him as a joke.

DadaKopf

coupled with falling Labour popularity in the run-up to the general elections, felt safer with him out of the shadow cabinet.

Makes a lot of sense, too.

I think Mayor de Pfeffl-Johnson won largely out of public dissatisfaction with New Labour and lost love for the gormless PM. Livingstone is the victim of the nationwide local elections revolt.

A maverick, and always entertaining.

OPENROAD

DadaKopf wrote: »

Makes a lot of sense, too.

I think Mayor de Pfeffl-Johnson won largely out of public dissatisfaction with New Labour and lost love for the gormless PM. Livingstone is the victim of the nationwide local elections revolt.

Can't agree, think Boris deserves a lot more credit for the campaign that he ran which did grow stronger and stronger. Also the sleaze that has surrounded the Livingston team also contributed. However Boris would not have won without an excellent campaign.

Have people followed the London mayor elections closely or just offering opinions based on their perceptions of Boris.

Kovik

I like the common defense against the man's obvious lack of competence, that he did well in school and went to Oxford! Because privileged, old money aristocratic Etonians with Oxbridge connections have been such effective politicians for Britain in the past.

I had a quick scan of wikipedia to see if these nuggets of potential success in Boris's past were in any way founded. I found three quotes that not only made me laugh but also strengthened my position that he's utterly inappropriate to act as mayor of such a diverse city.

It is time to reassert British values…That means disposing of the first taboo, and accepting that the problem is Islam. Islam is the problem... What is going on in these mosques and madrasas? When is someone going to get 18th century on Islam’s mediaeval ass?

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.

In addition, the first line of the section on his supposedly successful professional career reads:

Upon graduating from Oxford with a 2:1 he lasted a week as a management consultant ("Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix, and stay conscious"), before becoming a trainee reporter for The Times. Within a year he was sacked for falsifying a quotation from his godfather, Colin Lucas, later vice-chancellor of Oxford University.

His policy of publishing false claims and making ludicrous accusations continue throughout his career with The Spectator, one of the most absurd publications I've ever encountered.

Complete moron. At least he's a mayor and not anything with any real authority.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Kovik wrote: »

In addition, the first line of the section on his supposedly successful professional career reads:

Well I think many people would find working as a managment consultant extremely dissatisfying and disillusioning, so I wouldn't hold that against him, and as for the falsification, I think he was just young and dangerously ambitious, and probably learnt his lesson.

Kovik wrote: »

His policy of publishing false claims and making ludicrous accusations continue throughout his career with The Spectator, one of the most absurd publications I've ever encountered.

Policy of publishing false claims??

Can you name any other time he has published a false claim or ludicrous accusation?

If you're referring to the Liverpool incident, then I have to say, as un-PC and un-publishable as the article was, it wasn't too far off the mark.

nacho libre

It was interesting last night to see 'Tarzan' focus on the powers as mayor that he doesn't have. He didn't take this approach when considering Ken's time in office. Anothers words anything that goes wrong or doesn't come to fruition, in major policy areas, won't really be Boris' fault.
So, while he may have lofty aims when it comes to crime he won't be able to implement any of his plans because it is specific govermental departments, not him, that wields the power in this aera.

Kovik

Sean_K wrote: »

Policy of publishing false claims??

Can you name any other time he has published a false claim or ludicrous accusation?

If you're referring to the Liverpool incident, then I have to say, as un-PC and un-publishable as the article was, it wasn't too far off the mark.

Crazed misrepresentations of the Islamic community in Britain,
ludicrous political revisionism when it comes to the tenures of Thatcher and Major and tabloid depictions of immigration and virtually all minority culture. The Spectator was always a conservative publication, no problem there. But under Johnson it became a tabloid in a disguise of respectability. The same economic misinformation as produced by tabloids, veiled bigotry and advocacy of antiquated meritocracy inform in every single issue. You need only pick one up.

That's a fairly bold statement in relation to the Liverpool thing (which, yes, I would have produced as the most prominent example) but I think that's a different thread altogether.

OPENROAD

Well let us see what Boris achieves over the next four years,most people on this board appear to have made up their minds although would love to know how many actually live in London or who have followed the campaign daily.

First new policy a ban on drinking alcohol on the tubes and bus from 01 June will be interesting to see if it works, people said the smoking ban would not work on the tubes, but in all of my time on the tube, I have yet to see someone smoking in stations or on the tube, I appreciate Kings Cross had an impact on this but it will be good to see alcohol off the tubes.

damnyanks

I live in London and one thing I've heard quite often from British people living here is that they voted for Boris because of his immigration stance.

A lot of people feel the country is over run with immigrants either from the old commonwealth or eastern europe.

LordSutch

Bring back the Routemasters & Repaint the Tubes that lovely dark 60s red, thats what I want from Boris

OPENROAD

damnyanks wrote: »

I live in London and one thing I've heard quite often from British people living here is that they voted for Boris because of his immigration stance.

A lot of people feel the country is over run with immigrants either from the old commonwealth or eastern europe.

You are speaking to the wrong people then and what views on immigration? The fact is Boris has called for an immigration amnesty. He has also highlighted the great contribution immigrants have made to London.

With regards immigration although their is a concern that the government do not know how many people have come in, this was not an issue in the mayor elections which you obviously must know living in London so am a bit surprised to hear you say that. Crime was the number one issue along with transport.