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letter from london: The British scene.

Just BorisWill Britain's most entertaining politician be London's next mayor?

By Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Posted Friday, July 20, 2007, at 2:23 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

And none of it makes any difference at all: Every gaffe and outrage glides off Boris like rain off an oilskin. Things have changed, of course, and for the better, since the days when eminent statesmen could be ruined by a divorce case, or indeed when any kind of sexual scandal was politically fatal. There are nowadays numerous divorced and cohabiting people in the Cabinet, and openly gay politicians on both sides of the House of Commons. Bill Clinton survived his domestic difficulties, and Sen. David Vitter may yet survive the wrath of God, his wife, and Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post (in ascending order of wrathfulness).

But Boris is unique: He is the first politician to parlay adultery into a career. Every time his trousers go down, his popularity goes up. I know anecdotally that respectable ladies of a certain age in Gloucestershire and Somerset think that Boris is adorable, perhaps fantasizing that they too might run their fingers through that mop.

What Mrs. Johnson makes of it is another matter, and any other married man who writes about Boris might at this point be suspected of grinding his teeth. Certainly, any other professional journalist could scarcely deny a flicker of envy. Boris makes 400,000 pounds a year from writing and speaking, including 250,000 pounds for a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph. No doubt that sum—$500,000 a year, $10,000 a piece, $10 a word—seems a pittance to American columnists, but it's quite a lot over here.

He is, to be sure, a very readable and funny writer. At a time when the drums of war were beating, and the Washington and London governments were making our flesh creep with dire warnings about Saddam's armaments, Gordon Brown, who was then chancellor of the exchequer and is now prime minister, presented a budget statement to the House of Commons, using some fairly dubious economic statistics. Or as Boris put it, the chancellor threatened us "with weapons of maths destruction."

Then Tony Blair took one of his many holiday junkets at someone else's expense, this time in a Tuscan palazzo, not only beautiful and tranquil but with its own supply of wine, olive oil, ham, and figs—altogether the sort of place any member of the bruschetta-and-pesto chattering class would kill for. We had always wondered what Blair was really for or against, Boris wrote, and now we knew: "He is prosciuto and antipasto."

That kind of wit, along with charm and cheek, can take someone a long way, and the English, despite the reputation of our staid and damp little island, have always had a soft spot for characters and "cards." The betting is that Boris' colorful personality will indeed win him the Tory nomination, and it's at least possible that he will defeat Livingstone.

And then? "London can take it" was the slogan during the Blitz, and London can probably take Boris, perhaps even survive him. For his part, the job could be fun, and it must surely offer plenty of opportunities for meeting people.

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Geoffrey Wheatcroft's book Yo, Blair! has just been published in Britain.
Photograph of Boris Johnson by Chris Young/AFP/Getty Images.
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Remarks from the Fray:

This is not from the London I live in, where Boris is considered a joke, and Ken Livingstone is a respected and popular public figure whose policies, such as the congestion charge are hugely successful.

He has said some stupid things in his tenure of over six years, but the judgment on his performance by the public is reflected in the polls by a large margin over Boris what's his name.

I'm sure Geoffrey Wheatcroft is impressed with scholarships and entertained by mannered crumpled clothes and naughty behaviour, but his article is more propaganda than journalism.

--quint vantage

(To reply, click here.)

Blair's pale imitation, Cameron, better watch out. Boris will use the London Mayor position as a springboard for leadership of the Conservatives and then onto being prime minister.

Quite frankly good luck to him and God speed.

Boris plays the part of court jester, in the classical sense, to make many valid political points. You do not have to look too closely to spot the seriousness behind the buffoonery.

It is also a curious irony that historically the jester is one of the few people who can get away with telling it as it is when freedom of speech is restricted. So Boris acts as a perfect counterpoint to the new labour-Blair-Brown regime.

--steelbucket

(To reply, click here.)

The most interesting thing about Boris Johnson is his reputation. Despite his own ancestry Johnson offers a return to a world of the "silly ass Englishman" of Wodehouse, rather than tragic Waugh. In some senses he is not a political figure at all but a one person a re-enactment society, breathing life into a dead stereotype like an actor.

His popularity is based on the fact that many are tired of PC controls and the correctness of this or that thought, speech or action. Johnson would probably claim not to know what PC stands for, yet he is seen as funny and harmless, not unkind.

The remark of left wing comedian Jeremy Hardy that Boris is the kind of bumbling Tory who would unhesitatingly round up people like Hardy and incarcerate them in a football stadium (not an idea which should be dismissed entirely) are fanciful and self-dramatising.

Johnson is always polite and charming, wherein lies his appeal. This is a case where losing could be a very good career move, always provided Johnson loses by a mile. Winning would be a disaster, not least for Mr Johnson himself.

--Barry Larking

(To reply, click here.)

Two pages on this guy, two pages about a politician who wants to serve as mayor of one of the great financial centers of the world, and what have we learned?

He dresses charmingly frumpy. Old ladies find him dreamy. He's a serial adulterer. He makes corny puns about Italian food. See anything missing here? Ah, yes, that's it... what does he stand for?!? Have we really fallen so far that we don't care at all what a politician's proposed policies are?

How would a Boris administration differ from a Ken administration, other than the quality of gossip? Is it naive of me even to ask such a thing? What, exactly, is the difference nowadays between a political election and a high school popularity contest?

--factlike

(To reply, click here.)

(7/21)

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