Johnson's a bit of a Wodehousian throwback (albeit with a chin): he comes across like Tuppy Glossop, but I think he's a bit of a Roderick Spode on the sly.Meanwhile in the Guardian, Patrick Barkham has taken up my recommendation that everyone interested in the London elections should read Andrew Gimson's biography of Boris.
And he may have saved you the trouble of reading it yourself by reproducing some of the choicer extracts:
"Boris's favoured pace is the amble," states his Eton school report, when not lambasting his "fecklessness" or "disgracefully cavalier" attitude. His great journalistic mentor, Frank Johnson (no relation), judged him to have "too little command of detail to become a politician". He was sacked from the Times for concocting a quote. His peers' verdict on his stint as the Telegraph's Brussels correspondent range from the querulous "he made stories up" to the contemptuous: "a complete charlatan".
When he turned to politics, Johnson's Conservative comrades were similarly scathing. A senior backbencher called him a "blithering idiot". Another was "staggered by his economic ignorance".
I note Ken has taken your advice too...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I hadn't troubled myself to look for more than the evidence of his appearances on TV, but he seems so obviously like an overblown Toryboy of the kind that made added insult to Thatcher that he'll sink himself whatever happens. Unless the voters of London turn irremediably frivolous: but then again, Ken was a sort of Labour Boris in his day, and who can the LibDems field?
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