Saturday, May 03, 2008

Pantomime politics

We have really entered a different era in politics with the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. He has even gone global, or at least occidental. 'Boris' kept penetrating my brain through the headphones from Radio Vlaanderen on Friday. Then New York's Gabby Cabby had to put in a few references too

Thats a lot of power, used wisely

He may be one of those starry politicians of whom historians say He could not cope with the cares of administration. So much will depend on those who work for him in the next layer down. They will have an interesting time of it, just so long as they really do know their stuff & are well organised. And can live with an unpredictable but very sharp witted boss. Sort of Sir Humphreys without the ego

Not least because of his hair Boris reminds me a bit of Robert Lowe, a Victorian politician who was born an albino & was very nearly blind. He overcame all the ribbing he got at Winchester, learned Latin & Greek through prodigious feats of memory, went to Oxford & eventually became MP & Cabinet Minister with an extraordinary reputation as a parliamentary debater

Am I the only one who remembers that Boris has been taking politics seriously for a long time now? He has not just waltzed in on the back of playing the buffoon on tv & a made-for-a-toff safe seat in Henley. He did the traditional new boy slog of fighting an unwinnable seat (in Cardiff?)

I also treasure the memory of an article he wrote in The Spectator on the vagaries of the law on British nationality, probably around 1990. My Daughter Is A Belgian!

Related post: What am I?