Sunday, November 14, 2004

Watching Boriswatch

Further inspection of the Boriswatch site reveals that his full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

It also reveals the following extraordinary claim:
Boris's bell has tolled in the political world, but he'll be back, doing so effortlessly what he has done in the past - transcending the class barriers and talking to the public in a language we all understand.
Nonsense. The basis of Boris Johnson's appeal is that he transcends the class barriers by talking to the public in a language no one can understand.

I am reminded of a story about Richard Crossman, the fiercely intellectual Labour minister from the 1960s who sat for a very working class seat. Someone once asked "Whatever do they make of Dick Crossman on the council estates in Coventry?"

The reply was: Oh, they don't understand a word he says, but they think he is wonderful."

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