Stephan Shakespeare: Get going now, Boris

Last week ConservativeHome noted how CCHQ was concerned at "drift" in Boris Johnson's campaign. Since when we have received numerous examples of a stalling campaign.  In his regular Monday column, Stephan Shakespeare calls on the Tories' Mayoral candidate to demonstrate discipline and courage now.

As a big fan of Boris, I’m getting worried. A while back I wrote that Boris could beat Livingstone and be a good Mayor, but that he needed a ‘Prince Hal Moment’ – where he rejects his bumbling comedic character just as Prince Henry rejects Falstaff to make himself fit to be King. That hasn’t happened. I’m beginning to suspect that dear old Boris thinks it’s enough to be dear old Boris.

There are two types of politician. The one who enters the arena because he or she really wants to change something, driven by a sense of injustice to fight for the people, angered by the stupidity or greed or fear in the affairs of man to order things in a better way, believing against the odds in a vision of how to make the world better - not just by gracing it with his superior grace and wisdom, but by putting everything at the service of progress.

And then there is the type of politician who is driven by mere desire for the job, by simple vanity, a self-admiring impulse to sit in the top seat, or because it’s a jolly good wheeze.

I’m hoping, and I still believe, that Boris is of the first type. London desperately needs a champion who is appalled at the waste and the organisational mess and who wants to change it because he knows that it’s the poor that pay for it with crappy lives. A champion who understands how criminally disproportionate is the slice of the tax-take from Londoners’ pockets that is exported to prop up failure in other parts of the country; who knows that the glittering success of the capital obscures the miserable lives of so many of its citizens.

Whoever wants to fight on behalf of Londoners should spend every possible moment learning and doing; meeting people from every part and every layer of the metropolis, arguing his case again and again wherever anyone will listen on any available platform, building, inspiring and leading a team that will win the campaign so he can get on with the revolution.

I don’t think Boris has yet said anything that could interest any Londoner. We all believe that he can and he will, but the faithful anticipation of a tv audience will not be enough. “Boris is a man who will stand up for the poor and downtrodden of London, who will fight night and day to make this city secure and productive in every corner. This is what he really cares about.” One would want to be able to say that without irony.

Boris says we should judge him in January. But this isn’t a game of political tactics. And it isn’t a game show where we clap at his cleverness and style.  This is a battle for the biggest directly elected position in Britain, second in Europe after the French Presidency.  Whoever wins will be entrusted with the most profound responsibility. Whoever aspires to this job must be willing to make great sacrifices.

Please, Boris, don’t wait until January. Start now. You have the wit – show us you also have the discipline and the courage.

Comments

[Chad Noble]

Give it a rest Comrade, sorry Comstock.

£60k after tax is barely school fees for three children in the UK these days...

[James Cleverly]

Why are some Conservatives so keen on attacking Boris? He is the best chance we have of getting a Conservative Mayor and we really should be supporting him.

Advice and criticism is welcome and I know his team would rather have it sent to them directly than via the media.

From the Times article linked above:

"Yesterday Mr Paddick called for the resignation of his former boss, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, despite saying days previously that he had promised Sir Ian that he would not do so."

Is this the kind of thing we want from candidates? Blatant opportunism?

Is it better for Boris to formulate policy properly (as he is doing) or just fire from the hip and hope?

[Comstock]

"£60k after tax is barely school fees for three children in the UK these days..."

It's a bugger isn't it. It's a shame the aformentioned tax doesn't include state education for all children free at the point of use.......

FWIW I'm not calling for MPs or the Mayor to get minimum wage or even average wage. I *am* calling on restrictions on what they can do on top.

Any organisation would expect a fairly full on commitment for a 60k plus job, and Westminster or the Mayor of London should be no exception.

[Comstock]

Just to note, Boris' website has now been updated......