Boris Johnson in a spot of bother (an ongoing series)

Liverpool is undoubtedly the worst UK city to offend (ask The Sun, Bulgaria and convicted murderers). I remember being in Liverpool the morning that ill-fated "wallowing in victimhood" Spectator editorial was published, I must have been one of about three people in the area who read it before the Liverpool Echo picked up on it. It was so unwise to make such a generalisation about the whole city.

The incident did help reinforce notions of "Tory Toffs", but the Conservatives have now got candidates in all thirty wards of Liverpool for the first time since 1992. Using the same slogan as the Welsh Conservatives, "Vote for a change", the candidates include a Labour defector and eleven under-30s.

The City associations recently amalgamated, a process about which Nadine Dorries - now of blog fame - wrote a brilliant article.  Chris Grayling, "Shadow Minister for Liverpool", deserves a lot of credit for his work on this.

Ambitious Boris also largely survived the fuss, being appointed to promote the city's European Capital of Culture status. His next challenge was getting into hot stew with Papua New Guinea for linking it with cannibalism:

“For 10 years, we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party.”

And now, LibDems in Portsmouth are hoping to add their city to his portfolio for describing it in GQ magazine as:

"too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs."

Mike Hancock, LibDem MP for Portsmouth South, thinks Boris (who is currently on holiday) should embark on a similar pilgrimage of repentance as the shambolic "Operation Scouse Grovel":

"He should walk barefoot to Portsmouth and apologise and even that won't be enough".

Students absolutely adore his bumbling, self-deprecating persona but it can seem a bit overplayed sometimes, doing a disservice to his high intelligence. Indeed, with his reputation preceding him it has become much more likely that any edgy off-the-cuff comments made by him will be picked up by the media than by most politicians. The only thing which has noticeably damaged his reputation is having two successive affairs, but as I'm sure this latest gaffe will attest - Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has remarkable bouncebackability!

Deputy Editor

d

Comments

[Alexander Graham]

The kind of comments that keep offending people come with the whole Silly Boris package.

Its a shame, he has a good brain. He's part of Cameron's OE set though so may still reach the reins of power he so obviously craves.

[Andrew Woodman]

People respect his honesty at least. His latest comment could probably be relevant for most cities in the UK.

[malcolm]

Boris tries to be amusing all the time, unfortunately he's funny only some of the time. Mike Hancock is typically making far too much of this and hopefully Cameron will ignore him and this story.
But Boris if you read this, please engage your brain before you open your mouth or find another job.

[boris]

"preceding him"

[George Hinton]

We have the culture of victimhood, as so admirably described by Boris, and now we see the culture of i am aggrieved and insulted by your words.
Well bugger all who are insulted or aggrieved or take exception, get a life, grow thicker skin, lighten up, one person's comments do not blacken all. This is yet another example of individuals and small minorities attempting to censor a whole nation.
Mike Hancock is a very able Lib-Dem MP, who tries his best for his constituents, but he has to recognise, that there is an element of truth in Boris's comments, so perhaps he can save/shove? the "amore propre".
Indeed, perhaps we should all be a lot more robust and tell those injured, bleeding hearted victims to get a life and shove their attitudes where the sun doesn't shine.

[Deputy Editor]

I agree George, it's a similar kind of "offence" to that supposedly caused by the Barnet Councillor in Mandela fancy dress (both issues created by LibDems).

[Andrew Woodman]

Shows a certain kind of desperation from the Lib Dems, that it's only non incidents like this where we ever seem to hear from them.

[William Norton]

This is the sort of thing one expects from people trapped inside in-bred enclaves isolated from the mainstream of normal society. But that's enough about Portsmouth....

[Richard]

"too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs."

What about this is untrue?

[Scotty]

Boris is not and never has been an on message party drone, it is the reason why he is so liked by the public what ever their politics.
The Libdems are the "class room" sneaks who desperately rely on other party politicians at all levels making mistakes rather than putting forward a viable alternative.
They need to do this to collect protest votes, but it does make them a joke as Liberals!
I would rather attack the Libdems methods instead of Boris Johnston who is passionate about the conservative party and a great asset particularly with young voters.

[Andrew Bradley]

If Boris johnson can have 'two sucessive affairs' then there must be hope for all of us,even if it is only one. Can't remember who the first one was with.

[Off Message]

Come on Sam, don't be so sanctimonious. There are words for colluding with the humourless Lib Dems and none of them are nice. Unlike Boris who's great.

[Annabel Herriott]

Andrew! You can have a face lke a bag of spanners, but if you can make a woman really really laugh, you are nearly there!
Boris makes 99 point 9 of womanhood laugh, so I guess he is actually quite circumspect, is he not? Only Two????????

[Bill]

I have not read so much rubbish in a long time.

[Richard Carey]

Andrew! You can have a face lke a bag of spanners, but if you can make a woman really really laugh, you are nearly there!

Note to self, must work harder on sense of humour...

[Odessa Calling]

When wasn't he in a spot of bovver. And oh my Gawd, those shorts. People have been arrested for less.

[Paul D]

This could scupper our chances in Portsmouth in May

On the plus side, though, we should expect substantial gains in Southampton

[Curly]

Boris ought to be seriously reprimanded, how can he possibly criticise the place without mention of it's concrete block architectures?

[simon]

What a fuss over nothing! Portsmouth has gone downhill over a long period! Walk around the old council estates in Waterlooville! Things have got so bad down there some people are driven to vote LDem!

[Peter Hatchet]

Although he's quite blunt about it, funny thing is Boris is normally right.

On Portsmouth he's not quite right though.

He forgets that Portsmouth actually has ONE Labour MP and ONE Lib Dem MP - both with small majorities.

Also, Waterlooville and Havant are in David Willetts constituency - and are loyally Tory, even though they're not the prettiest places in Hampshire.

Many, many more Conservatives exist in Portsmouth than Liverpool, Newcastle, or even Southampton!!