Boris confirms candidacy on his website... and ten minutes later the confirmation is deleted!

www.boris-johnson.com.

Relief for David Cameron to know that a heavy-hitter is prepared to join the race.

The big question left is now whether Steve Norris will run or not...

9.55am: Website now changed - confirmation has disappeared!

Comments

[TFA Tory]

There is no such story on Boris's website. Is the Editor taking the mickey or has Johnson had second thoughts and removed the post?

[hmmm]

Is not up at the moment - perhaps Boris has changed his mind?

[Editor]

See my 9.55am update, TFA Tory. The announcement was there as my screen capture proves.

[Umbrella man]

Ridiculous! Is his campaign going to be as chaotic as this?

[Henry Mayhew - ukipper / authentic conservative]

Excellent news. Boris will show how popular authentic conservatism naturally is. None of us can handle 100% earnestness which is where his clowning may come from. Good salesmanship for Sound policies.

[Jonathan Sheppard]

We know he wants to. Just get the announcement back on! Run Boris Run!

[Russell]

A throughly bad idea. He'll lose against Livingstone and scupper his political career in the process. Don't do it, Boris!

[boris for the capital]

I SUSPECT SOMEONE IN HIS OFFICE GOT AHEAD OF THEMSELVES. VERY FUNNY THOUGHT AND TYPICALLY BORIS.

[Jonathan Sheppard]

It doesnt effect me - as I dont live in London - but surely Mayoral elections are very much like Presidential ones - its the individual that counts as much as the party. Surely we need someone that people KNOW to take on Ken.

[Ted]

My bloglines links me through to the actual post which is still accessible strangely:

http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2007/07/boris_confirmed_as_london_mayo.php

[Baskerville]

Looks like his website has some sort of auto-capture for press stories about Boris - or a very dim researcher - as the story is a straight lift from the Telegraph. Presumably, as soon as some sentient being saw it, they took it down.

[Og]

I am all in favour of mayors with powers at a more local level, working to strict budgets.

But all you need to know about the London Mayor extravagance is that it will come down to Ken v Boris.

Don't get me wrong, I like Boris and consider him an asset to the party. But he's no mayor. Perhaps he knows this. The best thing he could do is win the contest and then preside over a huge shrinkage in the size of the London Mayor's office. Can someone tell me what Ken's headcount is at present? Many thousands, I'd guess.

I know someone needs to put an end to Ken, and if Boris is the only man, so be it. But, let's not replace a man squandering money on sucking up to Chavez, Castro, Adams and McGuinness to another wasting Londoners' money on airfares to visit Howard in Oz and Harper in Canada. The job of the London mayor is to run London efficiently and imaginatively, at low cost. Striking political poses and grandstanding is expensive and delusional.

[Matt]

I've met Boris, I think he's a legendary character. I think it would be fantastic if he won, and I think he has an excellent chance of doing so.

[Henry Mayhew - ukipper / authentic conservative]

Er...Og, I think you will find the word 'delusional' is no longer modern usage in Conservative circles. It is now tax breaks for marriage.

[Brian Jenner]

The main problem of the Conservative Party is it's hankering after 'saviour' figures. First it was David Cameron who was going to beat Blair/Brown, now Boris will potentially save face in London, or even beat Ken Livingstone.

The public won't buy it.

It insults those more thoughtful but less flamboyant characters who are overlooked within the organisation. The press will love Boris, but they will love it even more if they can derail his campaign with a scandal. Show integrity, Pick someone like Simon Milton. Face it, the Conservative Party needs talent and has very little. Only by operating in a more principled way will they attract better candidates.

[Matt]

Something to do with Friday 13th, maybe?

[Sibaz]

Politics at whatever level is about getting your message across, and that requires getting a high profile in the press. It's fundamental if you're a local councillor, or an MP (or a potential mayor) to get a public profile and become a recognisable name, to your electorate.

Boris has done that, so will stand a better chance of getting elected than anyone else with a lower profile. Simon Milton may be a marvellous chap, but does Joe Smith, market trader from Sutton know it? If not, that is Simon's fault. Getter a better profile or step aside.

What would be a fair comment, is that the party generally should be doing more to help able, local candidates improve their profile. Most candidates don't have a clue how to manipulate the press, but then given recent news, I'm not sure the party does either.

[Trevor]

I think Boris is the right guy for this. It's not a normal political role, and it does require some raz-ma-taz. Some off-the-self politico won't do. Norris is too dull.

We were prepared to risk Jeffrey Archer first time, because we understand that it would take a character like that to win.

Fundamentally, we have nothing to lose here.

[Yogi]

Initially I was sceptical about Boris - it is his image I suppose - although never doubted his ability. Something happened this week - Andrew Gilligan (remember him? Campbell's nemesis)put it in a single sentence - Boris is a serious person masquerading as a buffoon whereas Livingstone is a buffoon masquearding as a serious person. Absolutely spot on.

AS for Norris, please NO. The man by his refusal to resign from his Directorship of an unpopular company, cost us the elections last time and he is a loser.

[SG]

Daily Mail are reporting that Boris is "still agonising" over whether to stand for Mayor, and will decide over the weekend:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=468176&in_page_id=1770

[AntiCitizenOne]

OT (and geek)

"screen capture proves." That's not a screen capture, that's a photo of your monitor!

To Screen Capture (on windows) use Alt + Print Screen (PRT SCR) then paste into MS Paint.

As you use Firefox, here's an Add-On you can use to grab entire pages (bigger than screen)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

[Greg Walker]

Yes to Norris, no to Boris. Comparisons with Jeffrey Archer and Boris Johnson are apt but tell us why he is unacceptable.

We need someone with the competence and experience to do the job. Too many people in the party think this is just about being a bit of a character yes Steve Norris, Ken Livingstone, Jeffrey Archer and Boris are all characters but it takes more than just that to be a successful and credible Mayor and Mayoral candidate.

[little me]

Confirmation is still on Boris's website, just not linked from the main page. Odd...

[Charles Francis]

Shouldn't Mr. Johnson be moved back into the "Will He, Won't He?" section?

[Yet Another Anon]

Comparisons with Jeffrey Archer and Boris Johnson are apt but tell us why he is unacceptable.
There has been a lot of buffoonery by both, but what really killed Jeffrey Archer's bid for London Mayor and ultimately lead to a jail term was a little matter of perjury, and there is no suggestion that Boris Johnson has any such thing hanging over him. Boris Johnson is probably one of the most honest of politicians, yet Jeffrey Archer had all kinds of questions about all kinds of claims he had made about his academic career and associations in order to further his career and there are no such questions over Boris Johnson, and of course Ken Livingstone and Steve Norris are just as capable of buffoonery as Boris Johnson is.

That said though I am inclined to think that all 3 are unsuitable - it's a pity James Whale isn't running, not that I have much of an interest in London, but he probably would have made quite a good Mayor.

[Tim Roll-Pickering]

Has no-one looked at a map of London to see where Henley is?

[Paul Walter]

Anticitizen one. Strangely enough, I did an actual screen capture of the annoucement when it was on the BJ home page:
http://paulwalter.blogspot.com/2007/07/boris-johnson-confirms-mayoral-run-on.html#links

[comstock]

According to this mornings Mirror, he will have to give up his seat if he stands. Not if he wins (understandable) but just if he stands

Is this correct?

[Editor]

I don't think it is correct, comstock.

[Oliver James]

Author of the Conservative Soul and Sunday Times columnist and Tory Andrew Sullivan:

"The calibre of their spokesmen also needs looking at. I was astonished, as someone removed from British politics for a long while, to find that one of the party’s media stars is Boris Johnson. I knew Boris two decades ago and played an infinitesimal part in helping him advance in student politics. And there he was on the BBC, a Tory star, performing the same pathetic schtick he had deployed at university 20 years ago.

"After all this time, I expected perhaps a new maturity, a sense of what he believed in. But he’s still a preposterous, if amusing, ra-ra playing a preposterous, if amusing, rara. My American friends asked about the hair. I explained it’s a prop, the kind of thing a TV personality deploys to cover a lack of material. How, I wonder, can a British voter take seriously a party that presents him as a spokesman?"

www.andrewsullivan.com

[Maria Robinson]

Sadly, Boris Johnson has never taken up Michael Portillo's wise counsel to decide whether he is a comedian or a politician.

London Mayor, and the London Mayor election, is about crime and policing, not his hair, or his trousers, his Archeresque bombast or his foot-in-mouth tendency.

[raincoaster]

Andrew Sullivan's remark applies equally to Andrew Sullivan. He's going to drop that name for all it's worth if Boris gets elected. Not that it will go far in Washington, actually.

[Jason Harper]

"Andrew Sullivan's remark applies equally to Andrew Sullivan."

Nah. He just doesn't have a high opinion of Boris Johnson, just like William Hague, Michael Portillo, Michael Howard and Steve Norris don't have a high opinion of Boris Johnson.

What do they all have in common? Nothing except they all worked their way up in the world and the Tory Party using their talent. Not born with silver spoons in their mouths they couldn't afford to spend university trashing other people's restaurants and pubs for a bit of a giggle.

[Mike Harris]

"London Mayor, and the London Mayor election, is about crime and policing."

It's also about transport, which is why we need Steve Norris as our candidate for London mayor.

[Julie Fleming]

Not Boris the clown, please.

You do actually have to run things to be a Mayoral candidate or to be the Mayor.

[Tory T]

He's in! We'll win it now

[John Marks]

Totally off-topic, but at least his blog (down at the time of writing) seems to be hosted on an Apache HTTP server running on Fedora Linux. Nice to see even Conservatives abandoning Microsoft for open-source software for once.

[Tooty]

If Dave backed him, he is a sure looser.