Boris assessed
The G2 section of the Guardian has an interesting assessment of Boris' mayoralty so far:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/09/boris-localgovernment
Conclusion:
"Johnson may need a lot of help. Even now, his popularity as mayor could be more apparent than real: astonishingly it has yet to be measured in an opinion poll. And Londoners can quickly tire of their leaders. Just off Tottenham Court Road in the centre of the city, there is a faded mural. It is a rather bleak panorama of London life, painted in 1980: traffic, cranes, dark pubs, grey-faced people. High up in the picture, presiding over the near-chaos, is a flamboyant Tory politician who has been viciously caricatured, as a red-eyed, bow-tied vampire. It is Horace Cutler, the Boris Johnson of his day.
Cutler's administration took office in 1977, governed London with flair, and then ran into a recession and a country-wide revolt against the Conservatives. The year after the mural went up, the Cutler regime was voted out. He soon left politics to pursue other interests."
posted by Luke Akehurst at 8:46 am
14 Comments:
As a Labour suppoter, I'd be very careful about writing off politicians who lead countries into recessions.
10:00 am, December 09, 2008
I think that's the point the Guardian was making - that the electoral victims of the recession were local/regional politicians who couldn't pursue policy agendas devised in more affluent times.
10:54 am, December 09, 2008
So far 2 things very unpopular the Baffoon has done!
Kens affordable 50% Housing scheme!
Cheap Fuel from Venezuela to fund concessionary fares on TFL!
11:56 am, December 09, 2008
Oh yeh. Well, you didn't watch Boris on Top Gear.
He wasn't doing politics but boy was he doing politics.
Comparing Horace Cutler with Boris Johnson is ridiculous.
Cutler was a tedious machine apparatchik who looked like your grandad.
It would be incoveivable that Cutler would be considered for any electoral office now because of that handicap.
The Guardian's take? That poor sad bald bald bastard Dave Hill, the so-called City Hall watcher.
Just another tired boring lefty waiting to be made redundant by web 3.
12:22 pm, December 09, 2008
All Boris has to do is stand up and mouth a few words: "Oil from Venezuela" and "Lee Jasper".
Cue: Instant nightmare recall of Ken's Kingdom.
2:47 pm, December 09, 2008
On one level, we have had one personality politician, semi-detached from his party, replacing another.
I don't get very much idea of what Boris Johnson actually wants to do - given that the role of the Mayor is strategic combined with cheerleading. being objective, he may be good at the latter as he is quite likeable and doesn't care what people think about him - much like Ken - but its the strategic stuff which just isn't there.
3:44 pm, December 09, 2008
Not really a nightmare though, Venezuelan oil, was it? Considering the 20 Million quid Boris has cost London taxpayers by ditching the deal, I mean?
4:59 pm, December 09, 2008
Horace Cutler?
A goatee beard and a bow-tie, for God's sake. In other word, a codger deluded he's a dandy.
Cutler never stood a chance.
8:24 pm, December 09, 2008
The Baffoon is an idiot!
We want Ken back!
Ken should stand as an independent socialist again and he would win it easily.
These Prats voted for the Baffoon, as a protest vote against the Labour National Leadership's direction.But a lot of CLP locally are actually aright its just the Cabinet Right Wing NLP lot!
Its time the National leadership changed course!
There should be Political education available from an early age and if there was a Baffoon would never be elected!
11:32 pm, December 09, 2008
"All Boris has to do is stand up and mouth a few words: "Oil from Venezuela" and "Lee Jasper".
Cue: Instant nightmare recall of Ken's Kingdom"
Yeah, because during Ken's reign, if you stopped anyone on the street in London and asked them about their quality of life they'd always bring up how Hugo Chavez and Lee Jasper are personally making it worse for them.
How many people in London actually know who Lee Jasper is, let alone identify how he is ruining their quality of life?
12:59 am, December 10, 2008
"How many people in London actually know who Lee Jasper is, let alone identify how he is ruining their quality of life?"
Bugger all, of course.
But that's not the point.
He was the unacceptable face of a whole army of International Socialists which had infiltrated the gaff at huge expense to taxpayers.
1:23 pm, December 10, 2008
Oh, what rubbish - in fact, Ken's result was remarkably good given the national position of the parties. This was the revolt of the suburbs, most of which are hardly 'London' in any case.
3:56 pm, December 10, 2008
Cheap fuel from one of the poorest countries in the world. Ken would be better placed in Cuba and not the UK.....thank god the country got rid of him.
As for the recession, most people haven't felt the effects yet. Yes we may be a bit poorer but once the penny drops that all these bailouts are going to mean big tax increases then I'm sure people will change their minds.
Labour have managed to perform a miracle in that they have managed to hide the fact that the banks have taken a trillion pounds of our money and we have got nothing in return.
In 3 years this place will be like a third world country. You are already seeing the attack on the unemployed in a bid to save millions, next will be the NHS and then pensions.
9:33 pm, December 10, 2008
Ken should have been PM.
The man is very creative and would have come up with better options fighting the recession than Brown has done borrowing billions of pounds following the Keynes Theory, which was originally aimed at calming down a rebellious working class just come back from war having a gutful of living in absolute squalor and poverty, these were very capable of uprising and overthrowing the ruling classes. Today it really needed a different approach and more intelligence that Ken would have delivered.
Ken would have really promoted Britain and got us more Tourism and made our manufacturing exportable. The infrastructure would have been improved and these banks would have been fully Nationalised. This would be a good way to exploit the run on the pound for the good.
12:08 am, December 13, 2008
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