How can you be a journalist and a politician and still be loved?

It's hard to watch this Clarkson meets Boris video and not think that the Mayor of London is something of a political superstar.

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[Effy Hugh]

To be fair Tim, your view is likely to be slightly skewered as a Tory member - not your fault.

While he is somewhat entertaining and does seem popular among younger people, I also know a lot of waivering potential Labour voters who find Johnson to be represent all that they dislike about the Conservative Party and find unelectable about it, opposed to the slick actions of Cameron. Sort of like if you had Prescott as Mayor and Blair as shadow leader.

Though I guess your theory must be somewhat right seeing as he won in London. Just not my experience of how people percieve him, though. Entertaining guy though, no doubt.

[Sally Roberts]

Oh lighten up Effy! :-) I watched this programme and although I too saw it through blue-tinted specs, as it were, I think anybody apart from the most po-faced Socialist would have had a good giggle!

It was brilliant - vintage Boris!

[Norm Brainer]

Real people watch top gear rather than the few that shout loudly proclaiming to be "real people" (who usually just watch topgear to find something to complain about) - so yes, was good to see Boris on there and typifying all that real people like about him. ie. not so slick, but says what he thinks (I was gonna say straight talking and doesn't waffle, but he does in his own way)

Labour supporters might want a stern father figure to command over them with brown as a nanny, but most people would prefer to be free of that, and so Boris being human gives hope and so therefore is still liked.

[Man in a Shed]

The best bit of Top Gear was its take on Communism earlier on. Get that up on Youtube.

[Angelo Basu]

I think Boris manages to mix irreverence with an ability to deal with real issues and actually do what people elected him to do. It takes some skill to be able to appear to waffle and be straight talking at the same time! Ordinary people, as opposed to po-faced do-gooders, have always had rather a soft spot for nice toffs.

[Mr Angry]

This typifies why my LibDem voting brother in Law voted for Boris for Mayor.

Boris reaches the parts of the electorate that other politicians can't.

[LondonToryTruthDrug]

Boris was elected because most floating voters in London (especially outside Zone 1) had come to dislike "Comrade Ken, the Coppers' Friend". Added to that the Lib Dems ran a candidate who I guess even they were surprised to see was so poor.

The Boris joke has worn very thin with a lot of floating voters in London already. His "hands in pockets shuffle" in Beijing reminded a lot of people of Harry Enfield's Tory Boy. Some might reply "oh come off it" , ironically in that pompous Tory Boy way, but a lot of the people whom the Tories need to vote for them in London were aghast. Many other solid London Tories winced with real embarassment.

It is unfortunate that any suggestion to the "Blue is always right" faithful that something is wrong is met with complete putdown. That "tory obsessiveness gene" again ?

Let's be blunt. Boris's bizarre personality is capable of reducing the Tory vote by up to 5% across London by the next general election. That is the difference between a Tory landslide and a hung parliament. He is a vote loser, not a winner. People will have even less patience with his mumbling and bumbling as times get tough and they lose their jobs. He needs to be kept under wraps as the Republicans did with Bush.

Boris is now an exercise in damage control. You heard it here (as so often with Conservative Home), first !

[Norm Brainer]

LondonToryTruthDrug .... I think you're the pofaced socialist as described above.

Ask anyone on the streets in London and more often than not they'll praise him, unless they are strong labour supporters (they'll probably still go on about picaninnies) - or others will just moan that he hasn't got rid of the bendy buses sooner, but it's so better to have a timetable for when things can get better rather than a constant string of schemes from an oppressive overlord attempting to stifle your every move.

[Norm Brainer]

LondonToryTruthDrug .... I think you're the pofaced socialist as described above.

Ask anyone on the streets in London and more often than not they'll praise him, unless they are strong labour supporters (they'll probably still go on about picaninnies) - or others will just moan that he hasn't got rid of the bendy buses sooner, but it's so better to have a timetable for when things can get better rather than a constant string of schemes from an oppressive overlord attempting to stifle your every move.

[bloggingharry]

Cracking stuff - as Boris would say.

Demonstrating the counter argument to LondonToryTruthDrug in one fall swoop. Despite the fact that he may well irk people from time to time (as the interview refers to the drinking ban - which irked a lot!), the fact is that Boris is genial enough to be able to win people back with his good nature and humour. This gives him what football pundits call 'bounce-back-ability'.

Mistakes are passed off as Borisism's while his humour and good nature make him appealing. The Tories will win 5% more of the vote rather than lose 5% of the vote because of characters like Boris.

[Alex]

Lighten up Effy Hugh (December 10, 2008 at 08:45).

Left whingers eh?

[Onthejob]

You are all goingn to kill me for this but is he our john prescott

[LondonToryTruthDrug]

Well said "Onthejob"... you captured the essence of the relationship between Boris and Tory activists - the people who stand BETWEEN potential Tory voters and their MPs and thereby keep the Tory party out of Number 10.

Firstly you so accurately said of Boris "he our John Prescott" . Inarticulate, bumbling, gaff-prone but supported by the fringe on the grounds that "if even he can achieve office there may be hope for me".

But you had to temper it with "You are all going to kill me..."

For such is the obsessive goggle-eyed braying sycophancy towards anyone who hits the Tory top table. And the more pooterish they are the more bizarrely Pyonyangian the sycophancy.

Boris is a vote loser. He is there because of Londoners' loathing of Chavez-loving Ken. He will soon be the vote winner for Labour that Comrades Brown and Darling are for Cameron.

Cameron sent him to be Mayor to keep him away from the adult world of Westminster politics. They could get nobody else, even Radio DJs. Boris was given the choice... London or Siberia (in UK politics that means N Ireland spokesman). Like Ken, he knew he would never make it in Westminster. he had gone, he had been seen and he had gaffed. Once too often.

Such is the contempt the Tory party have for the Mayor's office and GLA (including their own members of it) - wall to wall oddballs - ... and they are perfectly right. Westminster, Brussels and, above all Washington, are where Britain's destiny are decided. Not in the outside loo for HMS Belfast.

[Norm Brainer]

You have a weird view of the history of how Boris became Mayor, "LondonToryTruthDrug"

But anyway, He's not a vote loser for Conservatives, those that don't like Boris would probably never vote Conservative anyway or if they did it might be a protest against brown and they can see that Boris is suitably detached from the party in his role as mayor.

[Onthejob]

Actually I said

IS he our John Prescott

[Chingford Tory girl]

Loved him in May, Love him still, to me he can't do anything wrong!

[B.garvie]

An excellent program and Boris and Jeremy at their best. It was the only light hearted program of the week. A real tonic to get away from the Government's doom and gloom.

[london activist]

He is lazy and distracted. Time for him to ditch the 250k from the Telegraph which he concealed from voters and party before May 1.

[IRJMilne]

"Boris is a vote loser. He is there because of Londoners' loathing of Chavez-loving Ken. He will soon be the vote winner for Labour that Comrades Brown and Darling are for Cameron."

Boris is a vote loser?! How did he virtually double the vote of his predecessor in the mayoral elections? It wasn't because London deserted Ken - he got more votes this time around than last time! If people hated Ken so much, why didn't they troop out in droves for Norris last election? Having already spent a full term as mayor and with a long and well known track record of attempts to bring socialism to London, he was hardly an unknown quantity who shocked the good citizens during his last term of office.

When I was canvassing I met one solitary person who said that, though usually a Tory, he was voting for Ken because "Boris is a buffoon" (I quote). Most people I spoke to were enthusiastic about him - in fact, I recall more Boris detraction in the Conservative Association than on the streets. He may have helped get the Livingstone vote out, but he absolutely galvanised Conservative support, and since becoming mayor has been moderate to a point that will have disappointed many of his supporters, if anything.

I had, and still have, my own doubts about Mayor Boris. But a vote-loser? Not at the moment he isn't.

[Andrew S]

"Just not my experience of how people percieve him, though. Entertaining guy though, no doubt."

Although I don't live in London, I don't know anyone who doesn't like Boris

[StevenAdams]

LondonToryTruthDrug:

Total claptrap. Virus hasn't had an easy time in office due to the repeated resignations, but his policies are being driven through (buses, congestion extension scrapping, drinking on public transport etc). To suggest that the electorate that voted for him have turned on their heals in about 9 months when the media eye has been focused on the credit crunch is just madness.

Moreover, on what planet are you, if you think he was sent to be mayor of LONDON to keep him OUT of the limelight??? For crying out loud.

[StevenAdams]

Aah... predictive typing on my iPhone substituted 'Boris' for 'Virus'... that somewhat blunts the argument!