David Cameron Supports Boris Johnson; No-one Surprised

Tory leader David Cameron has put his full backing behind prospective London mayor Boris Johnson, referring to the bumbling Biggles fan as ''exactly the kind of leader the capital needs''.

Elaborating on things, D-Cam turned up to Boris's Edmonton campaign launch and reeled off more of his tribute: "I don't always agree with him [Boris] but I respect the fact that he's absolutely his own man. He's a proper Conservative - practical, open-minded and keen to get things done. And he's someone who has a properly thought-through plan to make London better."

All very supportive and morale-boosting, but can BoJo live up to the mounting hype? It looks questionable, seeing as poor old Boris seems reliant on others to yell their praises for his mayoral 'strategies', while he simply dodders around mumbling like a confused old man wondering why someone has given him He-Man's haircut.

Look at the killer soundbites so far: Boris wants nothing more than unruly teenagers on buses to stop 'acting up', and wants to "challenge the assumption that there is nothing cooler than the gangs" - as though gang culture is some sort of fashion statement rather than the result of urban decay, lack of opportunity and fragmented family structure.

Opponent Ken Livingstone has yet to share his thoughts, despite Cameron labelling BoJo as "twice as charismatic" and "twice as energetic". Ken has spoken out in the past about his distaste at such explicit personality politics, so Westmonster is particularly interested to check out whatever rebuttals will be heading Tory-bound.

Written by C J Davies on 31 Mar 2008 11:22 PM. Permalink