Boris Johnson......the next PM?

Angelina wrote:

Panda wrote:"And he claimed one in four Brits leave primary school still unable to read, write or do basic maths."
Boris is right there, Britain is 18th in Europe for reading , writing and arithmetic .!!!
I watched a couple of T.V. programmes last night , one on immigration and the Border Agency is clearly overwhelmed trying to stem the rise in illegals . Apparently, Chinese illegals have the biggest influx and hoodwinking the Border Police in the bargain. Several were found inside huge container lorries. others working illegally in chinese Restaurants , something really must be done , the situation is out of control.
The other programme is about "Dave" the guy who set up his own Bank which lends money at a fair rate of interest to small businesses and is very popular. He hired an empty shop and is now using it to offer basic courses for teenagers to learn, hairdressing, Hotel Work etc and after one year was awarded £2 million from the Lottery Fund because it is so successful and will be introduced in other Areas.
Why havn't the Government done something similar? Plenty of qualified Plumbers, Electricians etc, empty buildings to train youngsters so the have a trade.....money well spent IMO

When my niece was 17 she started a hairdressing course at school...but they weren't allowed to use scissors so she dropped out. How the hell can you learn hairdressing with no scissors?

Angelina, I despair of our Education system . Michael Gove , the Education Minister is on the right track in trying to overhaul it so that children learn to read , write and spell at the very least.

Lioned wrote:There is not much point trying to train plumbers,electricians,etc etc when there are no jobs or apprenticeships because builders can employ cheap foreign labour.

Boris misses the point completely.

Or maybe he doesn't !

Perhaps he's just a very clever man who knows where the votes are ?

Its a ridiculous thing to say in a British newspaper but then again he is now representing London and how many 'British' people live in London now ?

You want Boris for PM,this is a taste of what you'll get.

Cheap jobs for 'illegals' selling horseburgers from dirty restaurants infested with rats and dirty stinking toilets,whilst Boris goes partying with the elite from China's ping pong privy.

Yes Lioned, this has been happening here for years and the present government still push the same propaganda lies of 'all English workers are idle and don't want work'. But it's not just The Tories, even Labour were pontificating the same drivel as a reason to keep allowing more immigration in. All service industry work is now done by cheap immigrant labour. One local large haulage firm will only advertise in and employ drivers from the Continent. Our tradespeople are now mainly foreign, as you say there are no apprenticeship schemes worth attending because of there being no job at the end of it. Even taxi drivers here are Asian and try to rip you off. One Asian guy tried to get away with taking me and Mrs S home from town a couple of years ago via a 5 mile detour demanding £10.00, even though I told him he was going wrong and no way would I pay him. I gave him the £3.50 we paid the earlier cabbie and told him I'd report him to the police and licencing authority if he didn't clear off.

I think it would be important NOW to set up training schemes so that when the economy picks up these apprenticeships will be vital to secure jobs.
I also think Border Control have completely lost the plot and the Home Office should set up a new Dept to deal solely with this immigration crisis . Nothing will be acheived unless firm action is taken and Britain ignores the EU directive on immigrants. I would have closed the Chinese Takeaway down when 4 illegals were discovered working there. If firmer action was taken maybe those employing illegals would think twice. I would also have charged the Container company which smuggled 8 illegals into Britain, the Driver should have been sacked. Any Employer using illegals should have the threat of having their Business closed down.
It's no good everyone wringing their hands, action should be taken , even overriding Judges leniency. Illegals are even coming from Lima in Peru!!!

Margaret Thatcher: brave, principled, electric


Lady Thatcher’s legacy speaks powerfully to every politician in Britain
today, writes Boris Johnson, and we all stand in her shade








Baroness Thatcher: she showed
that no matter where you came from you could kick down the door of the stuffy,
male-dominated club and bring in new ideas Photo: Rex
Features






By Boris Johnson

9:23PM BST 08 Apr 2013





Margaret Thatcher: coverage in full
Margaret Thatcher obituary
Margaret Thatcher death: latest
reaction





The flags are at half mast across London; even, they say, at the offices of
the European Commission. The tributes are pouring in around the world. The BBC
is still running wall-to-wall coverage. On the blogosphere and in the
Twittiverse there is vicious hand-to-hand conflict between her partisans and
those who thought she was a divisive old termagant – and worse. In a few days’
time her funeral will be attended by all the public honour and dignity that this
nation accorded the late Queen Mother or the Princess of Wales.


It is impossible to imagine that the death of any other British politician
could produce such a reaction. I mean no disrespect to the memory of these
worthy servants of the people, but do you remember anything much about the
passing of Edward Heath? Of Harold Wilson? Of Jim Callaghan? I rest my case.



It is now almost a quarter of a century since she was deposed by
yellow-bellied members of her own party, and there must be people under 25 who
can’t understand, frankly, what all the fuss is about. So I want to explain what
Margaret Hilda Thatcher meant for people of my generation, and what we mean when
we say that she changed this country and the world.



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She was the greatest Prime Minister since Winston Churchill, we say – and the
comparison is apt, because she was as brave as Churchill; indeed, you could
argue that she was even more combative than the wartime leader, more willing to
pick a fight on a matter of principle.

First I remember the horror of the IRA hunger strikes, and my teenage
disbelief that the government of this country would actually let people starve
themselves to death. But I also remember thinking that there was a principle at
stake – that peace-loving people should not give in to terrorists – and whatever
you thought of Margaret Thatcher’s handling of the tragedy, you could not fault
her for consistency.

Then I remember watching that Task Force head for the Falklands, when I was
doing my A-levels, and thinking the whole thing looked mad. The islands were
thousands of miles away and seemed to be mainly occupied by sheep. The Americans
weren’t backing us with any particular enthusiasm, and the BBC was endlessly
burbling on about some “Peruvian” peace plan, under which we would basically
accede to the larceny of Argentina.

I could see that the Prime Minister’s position was desperate; and yet I could
also see that she was right. She was sticking up for a principle – the
self-determination of the Falkland Islanders; and I remember a sudden surge of
admiration.

And when Arthur Scargill and the miners tried to unseat her in her second
term, I remember the other students passing the bucket round in the Junior
Common Room. I thought about it, since I could imagine that things were tough
for communities where coal had been a way of life for generations. I could see
how it would eat away at your self-esteem to be told that your labour was no
longer necessary.

Then I reflected on what was really going on, and the way Scargill was
holding a strike without a proper ballot, and the fundamental dishonesty of
pretending that there was an economic future for coal. I suddenly got irritated
with my right-on student colleagues, and was conscious that some kind of line
had been crossed.

I was now a Thatcherite, in the sense that I believed she was right and the
“Wets” were wrong; and I could see that there was no middle way. You either
stuck by your principles or you didn’t. You either gave in to the hunger
strikers, or you showed a grim and ultimately brutal resolve. You either
accepted an Argentine victory or else you defeated Galtieri.

You either took on the miners or else you surrendered to Marxist agitators
who wanted to bring down the elected government of the country. You either stuck
by America, and allowed the stationing of missiles in Europe, or else you gave
in to the blackmail of a sinister and tyrannical Soviet regime.

That was what was so electric about Margaret Thatcher, and that was why I
found myself backing her in her last great battle, over Europe. Once again, it
was a matter of principle.

The first time I found myself in her presence was at the Madrid EEC summit in
1989, which I reported on for this paper. I remember distinctly how she bustled
into a packed and steaming press room – brushing right past me. “Phwof,” she
said, or something like that, as if to express her general view of the Spanish
arrangements.

It struck me then that she was much prettier than I had expected, in an
English rose kind of way. I also thought she seemed in a bad mood. She was. As
we were later to discover, she had just been ambushed by two very clever men –
Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe – and told that she must join some European
currency project called the Exchange Rate Mechanism. She resisted, and they had
threatened to resign.

She objected to their proposals, because she didn’t believe you could solve
the country’s economic problems by trying to align sterling with other
currencies in a kind of semi-straitjacket. “You can’t buck the market,” she
said, and she was proved resoundingly right. The ERM turned out to be a
disaster, and the British economy only started to recover when the pound crashed
out on September 16 1992.

She was right not just about the ERM, but about the euro itself. She was
virtually alone among all European leaders in having the guts to say publicly
what many of them privately agreed – that it was courting disaster to try to jam
different economies into a currency union, when there was no political union to
take the strain.

Look at the unemployment rates in Greece and Spain, look at what is happening
in Cyprus, and the sputtering growth of the eurozone. It is impossible to deny
that she has been vindicated – and she was right because she took a stand on
principle: that it was deeply anti-democratic to try to take crucial economic
decisions without proper popular consent.

I cannot think of any other modern leader who has been so fierce in sticking
up for her core beliefs, and that is why she speaks so powerfully to every
politician in Britain today, and why we are all in her shade. In the end she was
martyred by lesser men who were fearful for their seats.

But by the time she left office she had inspired millions of people – and
especially women – that you could genuinely change things; that no matter where
you came from you could kick down the door of the stuffy, male-dominated club
and bring new ideas. She mobilised millions of people to take charge of their
economic destiny, and unleashed confidence and a spirit of enterprise.

She changed this country’s view of itself, and exploded the myth of decline.
She changed the Tory Party, she changed the Labour Party, and she transformed
the country she led: not by compromise, but by an iron resolve.

==============================================
Trust my Boris to tell it like it was.

I deliberately put this on his thread so Members could get another picture of Margaret Thatcher. On U.S. TV the Females were saying she made it
possible for Women to acheive political equality and even become Prime Ministers . RIP MT.

This is an excellent article Panda, thank you for putting it up. Problem is some people only see what they want to see and only remember what they want to remember, whatever suits. I know it is all true though and so do millions of others.

That is all that is on everyone's mind.....the Funeral and the cost One Woman said if they could spare £10 billion (who calculated this figure BTW?)the Country can't be that badly off. They forget that she singlehandedly got a rebate from the EC all those years ago worth far more that the cost of the Funeral. I think 10 million is more likely. There is no procession , she requested that her body be kept overnight in the Crypt in the Parliament building . not Westminster Abbey .

I think the Media should cut the reporting until the day before the Funeral since it is only inflaming the situation the Anarchisists saying they will be partying , I truly hope they don't interfere with the Funeral in front of all the Country Leaders expected.

Migrants get jobs because we’re not prepared to work as hard


Labour’s education policies left our young people lacking the skills or
ambition to compete, writes Boris Johnson








Why would anyone give the
Treasury back to Labour?






By Boris Johnson

9:13PM BST 07 Apr 2013


1674 Comments




Do you know what, I think the longest, coldest winter I can remember is
finally on the verge of packing it in. I can see a pretty little vixen
gambolling in the garden. Some pigeons are doing heavy petting in the tree. And
the pedestrians of London are getting more talkative as I pass by on my bike.



For months they have had their noses in their scarves, heads down, eyes
weeping. Now they are shouting at the traffic lights again, and revealing the
most interesting things. The other day a woman came up to me, as I waited
religiously for green, and gave me a clear insight into why Labour doesn’t
deserve to win the next election — and why, indeed, it almost certainly won’t.



She was called Katie and she was a recruitment consultant for a group of
swish restaurants. In other words, she was on the lookout for people to be
chefs, waiters, sommeliers, hat-check people: that kind of thing. The restaurant
business is one of many in which London now leads the planet, and I was keen to
know how things were going. If the tables at London’s top-end eateries are full
of people chomping through foie gras, then that is good news for many hundreds
of thousands of families, on modest incomes, who depend on a thriving catering
industry.


As the top chef Raymond Blanc pointed out the other day, the catering world
has amazing opportunities for young people to get started on good careers, and
Raymond is helping, with Tim Campbell, to lead our campaign to create 250,000
new apprenticeships. A booming restaurant trade is potentially very good news
for the 100,000 16 to 24-year-olds who are currently out of work and on
benefits. So I was agog to hear from Katie. “How’s business?” I asked.



Katie said that things were very good — never better, in fact. She had 20
vacancies in just five restaurants, and her services as a talent-spotter were
much in demand. “Fantastic!” I said, and made a mental note that this chimed
with recent statistics showing that employment in London was now at 70.3 per
cent, an all-time high.



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Then a thought occurred. “Er, tell me,” I said, “what proportion of the
people you employ are, you know, from London? I mean, how many of them are,
ahem, British?”

Katie looked embarrassed. She knew exactly what I was driving at.

“To be honest, about 10 per cent,” she said. “But why?” I asked. “Why is it
that these jobs are not being done by London kids? What can I do about it?” The
restaurant recruitment consultant looked thoughtful. “It’s the schools, I
think,” she said. “They teach the kids that they can earn all this money but
they don’t explain that they will have to work hard. The people I recruit — they
have a different work ethic.”

Now we all know that what Katie is saying is true, and we all know that it
isn’t enough to blame the immigrants. For starters, we can’t kick people out
when they are legally entitled to be here under EU rules. Second, and much more
important, it is economically illiterate to blame Eastern Europeans for getting
up early and working hard and being polite and helpful and therefore enabling
the London catering trade to flourish.

There isn’t some fixed “lump of labour” that means these jobs would otherwise
be done by native Britons. The chances are that there would be fewer
restaurants, since the costs would be higher and the service less good and the
reputation of London as the world capital of posh tucker would be less exalted
than it is today.

The failing lies with the last Labour government, which did not do enough to
reform our education system and to make sure that young people were prepared for
the jobs market.

London schools have been getting better — and it is a fact that even in some
of the poorest parts of the city, schools are now performing better than those
in many other parts of the country. Some good work was done by Tony Blair and
Andrew Adonis in trying to free up education — and yet they were blocked at
every turn by Gordon Brown and the teaching unions. As Blair once said, he had
the scars on his back to prove it.

The result is that huge numbers still leave primary school — about one in
four — unable to read or write properly or to do basic maths. No wonder they
will lose out, in the jobs market, to industrious people from Eastern Europe who
can take down a telephone message correctly.

Labour spent its time in government — a long period of economic plenty made
possible by the Thatcherian supply-side reforms — on a protracted borrowing
binge.

They borrowed people from other countries to fill this country’s skills gap
and to keep costs down — and did nothing like enough to reform our education
system to enable young people to cope with that competition. They borrowed
astronomic sums to maintain the welfare state and all its bureaucratic
appurtenances — and did absolutely nothing to reform the system so that we could
cope when money was scarcer.

All these reforms must now be carried out, by Conservatives, against a tough
economic backdrop. It is not easy, and it means saying some hard things. We need
to explain to young people that there can be glory and interest in any job, and
that you can begin as a waiter and end as a zillionaire. And it is time,
frankly, that London government — boroughs and City Hall — had a greater
strategic role in skills, so that we can work with business to make sure that
(for instance) catering gets the home-grown talent it needs.

Above all, we must support Michael Gove in driving up standards in schools —
and what does Labour have to say? Nothing, except to join the chorus of
union-led obstructionism. What does Labour have to say about welfare? Nothing,
except apparently to support every detail of the system that gave Mick Philpott
the equivalent of £100,000 a year. Well, nothing will come of nothing.

Why would anyone give the Treasury back to the people who wrote these vast
blank cheques against the future? Why give the key back to the guys who crashed
the car?

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Watch Cameron's EU speech in full






One in 10 UK CEOs has over 20 years'
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PMQs: Miliband grills PM over EU vote







Clegg: referendum will 'hit growth and jobs'






Miliband: Labour got it wrong on immigration

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We can’t afford to ignore our dynamic friends in the East


The Gulf is booming, its people love Britain and they want to invest here.
Let’s encourage them, writes Boris Johnson








Qatar already owns Harrods,
Britain’s poshest shop; the Shard, London’s tallest skyscraper; Number 1 Hyde
Park, Britain’s most expensive property - and countless stakes in public
companies, including
Barclays.







By Boris Johnson

8:59PM BST 21 Apr 2013


482 Comments




There are some ways in which to rate an Arab in Qatar as fairly traditional.
They can still have more than one wife. They still go falconing, as they did in
the Middle Ages, and will show you pictures of their favourite birds on their
mobiles. They still wear those flowing white robes with knife-edge creases, and
they adjust their headdress to get a better look at you. They eat camel. They
milk camel. They race camels. They even have camel beauty contests.


And I had a superb conversation with a learned sheikh who sat me down in his
majlis and explained the finer points of camel attractiveness – what to look for
in a truly ravishing creature. It’s not just the eyelashes or the length of the
neck or the shapeliness of the thighs, he said, though all of those are
important. “It is the lips,” he exclaimed, with a faraway look in his eye.



It seems that a really sensuous camel has a droopiness about the lower lip.



Then he told me how he had once found a drop-dead gorgeous camel, “perty and
perfect in every respect”, except that she (he thinks it was a she) lacked that
come-hither, pendulous quality in the lip area. She looked somehow too tight,
too buttoned up. So he went to a dentist and got some anaesthetic and rubbed it
into her jaw.


He then entered his botoxed beast of burden into a beauty contest, and she
drooped and drooled so fetchingly at the judges that she won first prize. The
only trouble, he said, was that everyone else cottoned on, and they all started
using ever-more sophisticated drugs to get a droop going in the lower lip. And
that is the story of the Gulf today.



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Not only have the Qataris introduced modern medicine to the ancient custom of
the camel beauty parade. They follow their camel races in huge Lexus SUVs, so
new that the plastic is still on the seats; and they no longer have
old-fashioned child jockeys on the back of the camels – they were banned five
years ago after some human rights outcry. So now they have electronic jockeys –
little whip-wielding robots on the humps, clad in racing silks – and they
control them from the backs of their charging SUVs, strategically timing the use
of the whip like kids with PlayStations.

This is a society in the throes of an astonishing and dynamic modernisation
over the past 10 years. The skyline in Doha has been forested with vast
skyscrapers, each of them striking and often beautiful. They are building new
cities on reclaimed land and they are sucking in the sea water, removing the
salt and cultivating avenues of trees. Their airport has just run out of room,
and they aren’t faffing around with some study into the options – they are
building a new one, right on the sea.

They are solving their traffic problems with a brand new metro, and already
they have spanking new university campuses, with world-class medical faculties,
and their eerily lovely museums are being filled with the treasures of the
Earth.

The opportunities for Britain are enormous. But for one reason or another,
the last Labour government made the mistake of not paying enough attention to
this part of the world.

Tony Blair never visited Qatar once, even though it was a British
protectorate until 1971. Well, we are making up for that now. I went to the
British Embassy party for the Queen’s birthday on Saturday night, and I swear
your heart would have burst with pride. There were 1,800 happy people there,
most of them Brits, and most of them involved in a surge of UK exports to the
Gulf.

The Qataris are wearing M&S underwear beneath their kanduras. They are
eating in Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. They are driving Land Rovers and phoning
with Vodafone – and last year the UK exported goods worth a record £1.3 billion
to Qatar alone; not bad for a place with only 1.8 million people. It was a joy
to hear the natives speak spontaneously of their affection for Britain. I lost
count of the number of times I was told: “London is my second home.”

They know the UK capital like the back of their hand; they want to invest
even more. Not just in the top-end luxury brands, but in infrastructure and
affordable homes, such as the Qatari investment in the Olympic Park. There is so
much we can offer, so many ways to build on this partnership. Qatar will host
the World Cup in 2022 and they may need our expertise in keeping such a big
project to a timescale and on budget.

They want to collaborate on higher education, on culture, on medicine, on
science. They want to diversify away from hydrocarbon, and we should be first in
the queue to help. I was amazed at the boom in the Gulf, for it is so very
different from our wretched European story. For five years the crisis has
dragged on, and every time we’ve thought the UK might attain an escape velocity,
the euro has had another convulsion and confidence has drained away.

Today, the Gulf is doing well because of resurgent demand from Asia, and
above all from China. America is returning to life, too – and as to our
continent, well, Europe is a microclimate of gloom. I came away from a week of
talking to hundreds of businessmen and political leaders in the Middle East, and
I am more convinced than ever that the world has changed profoundly since 2008,
and that the pace of change is accelerating.

Since the crisis began, “emerging markets” have provided the growth in the
world – at least two thirds of it. Of course Europe will always be vital and we
will always have a colossal stake in America. But it is in Asia, the Middle
East, Latin America and Africa that we must expand our businesses and restore
our instinct as a great trading nation.

It is an extraordinary fact that it is now the Commonwealth countries, so
long neglected by the UK, that are turning into the powerhouses of the future.
We have more friends than we sometimes imagine.

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Boris Johnson in India






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What I said to the Pontiff






Hundreds queue to see Boris Johnson






Why can't we deal properly with illiteracy?



============================================
You must admit he is an excellent writer and we need someone with his enthusiasm to put the Great back in Britain. Unless he steps down as Mayor of London to challenge Cameron I think we will have to wait until 2019 for Boris to be Prime Minister.

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Boris Johnson can do anything, David Cameron says


David Cameron has declared there is no limit to the potential achievements
of Boris Johnson - sparking renewed speculation the London Mayor may return to
the Commons.








Photo: Yui
Mok/PA







By Patrick Hennessy

10:52PM BST 27 Apr 2013


48 Comments




The Prime Minister used a newspaper interview to
insist he "loved" Mr Johnson and to insist that the Mayor
could do "anything" he wanted in politics.


Mr Cameron's warm words came despite
years of rivalry between the two Old Etonians, with many Conservative MPs
believing Mr Johnson is manoeuvring to try to succeed Mr Cameron as Tory leader.



That would depend on Mr Johnson becoming an MP once again - possibly before
the next general election - a prospect Mr Cameron appeared to entertain in his
remarks.


The Prime Minister said: "Boris can do anything, that's the moral of the
story of Boris.


"Boris is one of the greatest assets the Conservative Party has. I love
Boris."



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Asked whether the London Mayor could one day become prime minister, Mr
Cameron replied: "I'd never want to put a limit on what Boris can achieve."

Mr Johnson has been linked with several possible Tory constituency, including
Louth and Horncastle in Lincolnshire where the incumbent MP, the veteran Sir
Peter Tapsell, has informed Mr Cameron he is "keeping the seat warm" for the
mayor and could stand down at the next general election in 2015.

It would be a trickier task for Mr Johnson to return to the Commons before
the election, as his mayoral term runs until 2016 and he would have to do both
jobs simultaneously.

Mr Johnson gave his strongest hint yet in a recent BBC TV progamme that he
would like a tilt at the top job, telling his interviewer, Michael Cockerell:
"If the ball came loose from the back of a scrum, it would be a great thing to
have a crack at."

Speculation earlier this year that Mr Cameron could face a leadership
challenge before the next election has faded recently, with the Conservatives
reuniting after the death of Lady Thatcher, and the Prime Minister extending the
hand of friendship to some of his disaffected backbenchers.

However, senior figures in Downing Street are aware that concerns about Mr
Cameron's future could re-emerge if the Tories suffer a very bad set of results
in local elections in May.

Last week, the Prime Minister appointed Mr Johnson's younger brother Jo
Johnson, the Tory MP for Orpington, head of his policy unit at No10 in a
surprise move.
============================

On the Andrew Marr Show this morning one of the Guests said there is rivalry between Boris and his brother and Cameron has recruited Jo to get one over on Boris.As I said , I think it is too much of an ask for Boris to challenge for the 2015 election, but certainly for 2019.........unless of course the London Council agree to his resignation .

Keep calm, everyone – now is not the time to do a Nicolas Cage


Far from being bad news, the rise of Ukip is actually a good sign for the
Conservative Party








Nicolas Cage, presumably about
to lose his rag






By Boris Johnson

9:10PM BST 28 Apr 2013


353 Comments




It is common ground among the younger members of my family that the greatest
actor of this (and possibly any) epoch is the 49-year-old Hollywood veteran
Nicolas Cage, whose set-piece freak-outs are studied with cultish devotion – as
brilliant and unintentionally comical masterclasses in how to lose your rag on
screen.


In case you have not yet enjoyed Cage’s displays of yowling, bug-eyed,
wild-maned overacting, I can direct you to any number of splendid YouTube
compilations, including “Nicolas Cage Freaks Out” and “Nicolas Cage Loses His
S---”. He excels himself in Con Air, where he freaks out and kills someone for
the minor offence of playing with his fluffy toy (“Put the bunny back in the
box,” he says, several times and with increasing hysteria).


And yet, of all his many glorious roles, I would single out Face/Off (1997),
in which he somehow contrives to have his face surgically removed and swapped
with that of one of the world’s nastiest super-criminals, played by John
Travolta. The enemy looks like he does, sounds like he does. Worse, the gangster
takes his job and takes his car; takes his whole life. He sleeps with his wife!
Aaaargh!


Nicolas Cage does what he does best. He freaks out. He knows that there is an
impostor at work – making his daughter laugh, earning popularity in the office.
He wants to expose the fraud – but no one will listen to him. He wants to tell
the world that he’s the nice one, he’s the real deal – but it’s no use; they
have turned against him.


And that is the problem we Tories face when confronted with these chaps from
Ukip. Take Nigel Farage, whom I met years ago and who has always struck me as a
rather engaging geezer. He’s anti-pomposity, he’s anti-political correctness,
he’s anti-loony Brussels regulation. He’s in favour of low tax, and sticking up
for small business, and sticking up for Britain.



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We Tories look at him – with his pint and cigar and sense of humour – and we
instinctively recognise someone who is fundamentally indistinguishable from us.
He’s a blooming Conservative, for heaven’s sake; and yet he’s in our
constituencies, wooing our audiences, nicking our votes, and threatening to put
our councillors out of office. We feel the panic of a man confronted by his
Doppelgänger. Omigaaaad, we say to ourselves: they’re stealing our
schtick! And we are tempted to do a Nicolas Cage – to overreact, to freak out,
to denounce them all as frauds or worse. I think there may have been a few
ill-advised insults flying around in the past couple of days.

Well, I would humbly submit that there are better ways of tackling the Ukip
problem, if indeed it is really a problem at all. The rise of Farage and Ukip
tells us some interesting and important things about what the electorate wants –
and it is by no means bad news for the Conservatives. It tells us that the
voters are fed up with over-regulation of all kinds, and especially from
Brussels. Well, who is going to offer a referendum on the EU? Only the
Conservatives – and the trouble with voting Ukip is that it is likely to produce
the exact opposite: another Labour government and another five years of
spineless and unexamined servitude to the EU.

Or take the Human Rights Act, and yesterday’s astonishing story about a
fellow who has been here illegally since 2000, and has just tried to persuade a
court that he may not be returned to Iraq – in spite of repeated convictions for
drug dealing – because he has tattoos. These tattoos apparently include one of a
naked lady, of a kind that may allegedly cause offence in a Muslim country.

As it happens, there is no evidence whatever of anyone being persecuted in
Iraq because of his tattoos – even in the Islamist chaos that has followed the
removal of Saddam. Why shouldn’t he wear a T-shirt? Why can’t he get the tattoo
changed to look like a porpoise or something inoffensive? Why are British courts
sitting through this kind of drivel? Why are British taxpayers paying hundreds
of millions for the whole carry-on? You read that kind of story, and you can see
exactly why people are tempted to go for Ukip – just to give the whole cosy and
complacent political establishment a kick in the pants.

It is tempting, but there is only one party that has the remotest chance of
getting a grip on this sort of politically correct nonsense, and that is the
Conservatives. If you want the party that finally got a grip on mass illegal
immigration – after Labour deliberately let the brakes off – it is the Tories.
If you want to cut the burdens on small business, it is only the Tories who have
a hope of governing and actually doing something about the problem.

Rather than bashing Ukip, I reckon Tories should be comforted by their rise –
because the real story is surely that these voters are not turning to the one
party that is meant to be providing the official opposition. The rise of Ukip
confirms a) that a Tory approach is broadly popular and b) that in the middle of
a parliament, after long years of recession, and with growth more or less flat,
the Labour Party is going precisely nowhere.

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls were the people who advised Gordon Brown most
intimately throughout his profligate reign. It was they who said they had taken
Britain “beyond boom and bust” and then produced a spectacular bust.

They have absolutely nothing to say or to offer except to take the Labour
Party far to the Left of where it was even under Gordon Brown. Their lead has
been cut to single figures in the past few weeks, and if – as I strongly suspect
– the economy starts to recover well next year (and perhaps as early as this
summer), then that lead will be obliterated.

Now is not the time to do a Nicolas Cage and freak out at our Doppelgängers,
or to slag them off just for appearing to think, in large part, what many
Conservatives think. Now is the time to keep calm and carry on being
Conservative.

Follow me, I’m doing my clanking bit to speed up the Age of the Bike


Nothing beats riding through the country in May – but I’ve got to pick up
pace in August








In training... Photo: PA






By Boris Johnson

9:45PM BST 05 May 2013


74 Comments




You must be mad, my team tell me. You’ll never make it, they say – and I look
into their eyes and I know what they are thinking. They think I am just too fat
and clapped-out to cycle 100 miles. They think I will cark it on Box Hill in
scenes of mass hilarity. Well, folks, I don’t know about you, but the more
people discourage me, the more determined I am to have a crack.


In a little over three months’ time, a colossal peloton will leave the
Olympic Park, head out for Richmond, down to the Surrey Hills and then back up
to London. We have six hours in which to complete the course. Huge numbers have
signed up, and when we launched the RideLondon project I (inevitably) pledged I
would do it. And I am darned if I will wimp out now.


Since I am 48 and pushing 17 stone, and since my normal cycling speed is so
slow that my wife says it is a miracle I stay upright, I have decided to get in
shape. After a slow start, Operation Chiselled Whippet began on Saturday, with
my first attempt at a long-distance cycle. My bike has been with me for an
all-time record of six years, and looks older. Indeed, if it were a horse it
would long ago have been sent to the knackers’ yard.


But it is the only bike I have, and I am fond of it. I pumped the tyres. I
oiled the gears. I put on my helmet and pink-and-magenta Team London windcheater
and set out in the general direction of Oxfordshire – more than 50 miles away.
The first bit was dead easy: along the Marylebone Road like a greased cheetah,
hailed with cheery cries of “w–––––” from the top deck of the bus; and then I
came to the Westway flyover and Teufel!


There was a big sign saying that cyclists were not welcome. Well, we have a
plan for that. We are going to adorn the Westway with the largest continuous
single urban cycle path in Europe – a giant magic carpet to propel you from
Barking to Uxbridge.



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It will be wonderful, a Crossrail for the bike. But until that glad day
comes, cyclists have to work out another way west – and it is not obvious.

I did the Harrow Road underpass and roundabout, and was navigating slowly in
the estates between Trellick Tower and White City when the heavens opened. I was
drenched, freezing, and there was no sign of anything like a cycle path to the
west, and I am afraid I almost gave up. I was on the verge of ringing for
someone to pick me up when I thought: is this the spirit that built the empire?
Man or mouse!

Eventually I hooked up with the Great West Road, and look, there was
something claiming to be a cycle path. Huh. I was the only person to use it, and
frankly I could see why. It was a joke – endlessly petering out, so that I had
to join the hurtling wall of steel on the carriageway.

At one stage I found myself bouncing down an ever-narrowing kerbstone with
traffic whizzing towards me at 70mph, until the thing degenerated completely. On
one side was a ditch full of nettles, on the other the motorway, and everywhere
the crushed indicator lights that told me this was a bad place to be.

Eventually I found a “public footpath” and cycled hopefully along until it
became a stream, and I had to carry the bike about 500 yards through mud until I
came to a farmyard. The dogs started to bark.

In the distance I could see the M40 on my left, the A40 was somewhere on my
right. I had been on the move for almost three hours and I was nowhere near
Oxfordshire. I had to make a decision. I opted for the A40 – and it was a joy.
The traffic was light and unthreatening, and I had time to enjoy the sights.


The beauty of cycling is that you are a part of the world around you – and
yet you move through it untouched. I saw vignettes of comedy and tragedy: a kid
ringing a doorbell and running away, a poor tourist dropping her iPhone down a
drain. I saw the squashed foxes up close. I saw hostelries offering beer and
fine wines and “exotic dancing”. I started to fantasise about the pub lunch I
would have – roast beef, all the trimmings, a yard of foaming ale, exotic
dancing – and then I realised it would be fatal to stop.

Now I was in Beaconsfield, now Wycombe, and I was going like a train. This is
peasy! I was saying, when I saw an obstruction ahead. Billions of years ago
there were trillions of little sea creatures who all died and left their chalky
skeletons in vast mounds around London. They are called the Chilterns, and they
almost killed me. My bike zig-zagged across the road as I tried to fight the
gradient; my heart was thudding in my ears; I thought I might peg out – but I
was determined to make it to Bledlow Ridge; and when I did, it was sheer heaven.


There is nowhere more beautiful than England in May. The tulips were still
out; the hawthorn blossom like gunsmoke across the battlefield; the sun soft;
everything surging and budding with spring; and though the old bike was clanking
badly now I knew we had almost made it – and wheeee! I went down the other side
of the hills like something from Enid Blyton, so fast and for so long that I
wore out both brake pads; and after another 10 easy miles I was there.

I had cycled about half the distance I will have to do in August – and it had
taken me more than six hours! An old French onion-seller would have beaten me,
or a motorised wheelchair.

Oh well, the wind was against me, and next time I will be fitter. And one day
soon we will build those giant radial routes out of London so that everyone can
enjoy the magic of such a day. The age of the bike is coming.

Billions of years ago
there were trillions of little sea creatures who all died and left their chalky
skeletons in vast mounds around London. They are called the Chilterns"
I love the way he writes, he could definitely be a successful Author.

Peloton......this word is not in my Oxford Dictionary , so if anyone knows what it means please post it.

Panda wrote:Billions of years ago
there were trillions of little sea creatures who all died and left their chalky
skeletons in vast mounds around London. They are called the Chilterns"
I love the way he writes, he could definitely be a successful Author.

Peloton......this word is not in my Oxford Dictionary , so if anyone knows what it means please post it.

It's the main group of riders in a bike race (I think!)

Angelina wrote:

Panda wrote:Billions of years ago
there were trillions of little sea creatures who all died and left their chalky
skeletons in vast mounds around London. They are called the Chilterns"
I love the way he writes, he could definitely be a successful Author.

Peloton......this word is not in my Oxford Dictionary , so if anyone knows what it means please post it.

It's the main group of riders in a bike race (I think!)

Morning Angelina......well done, thank you . You must admit he is funny, articulate, very astute under all that buffoonery and I think he would make a good PM. Have you ever known such a dearth of talent among PM's today.?

Panda wrote:

Angelina wrote:

Panda wrote:Billions of years ago
there were trillions of little sea creatures who all died and left their chalky
skeletons in vast mounds around London. They are called the Chilterns"
I love the way he writes, he could definitely be a successful Author.

Peloton......this word is not in my Oxford Dictionary , so if anyone knows what it means please post it.

It's the main group of riders in a bike race (I think!)

Morning Angelina......well done, thank you . You must admit he is funny, articulate, very astute under all that buffoonery and I think he would make a good PM. Have you ever known such a dearth of talent among PM's today.?

Good morning Panda. Yes, I quite like him. I've seen him in person several times and he's always smiling. He's got lovely skin too, I would think most women would love to have skin like it.

If he ever wanted to be PM he would (imo) need to stop the joking a bit if people are to think of him as a serious contender. I don't know enough about him to have an opinion as to whether he would be a good leader but he's certainly no fool. His main problem I think is that he's too upper class to appeal to a large section of voters but I suspect he's not quite so out of touch with people as Cameron and Osbourn. The sooner those 2 are on the scrap heap the better.

Yes Angelina of all the Ministers Cameron stands out as the most reactie, not proactive and to suggest that we have a Referendum AFTER the next election has that "vote for me if you want a Referendum" bribery note about it.
The way things are going , no one Party would win an outright majority so who would form a coalition with whom, Libdems are not even in the running to form a coalition IMO , and UKIP hasn't got an MP so the Election in 2015 will be a free for all.
I think any Party which says it will opt out of Human Rights and immediately stop further immigration unless you have a job to come to would win.

Panda wrote:Yes Angelina of all the Ministers Cameron stands out as the most reactie, not proactive and to suggest that we have a Referendum AFTER the next election has that "vote for me if you want a Referendum" bribery note about it.
The way things are going , no one Party would win an outright majority so who would form a coalition with whom, Libdems are not even in the running to form a coalition IMO , and UKIP hasn't got an MP so the Election in 2015 will be a free for all.
I think any Party which says it will opt out of Human Rights and immediately stop further immigration unless you have a job to come to would win.

Absolutely right.

I didn't read or see it but I was told the other day about something Simon Hughes has recently said re all the money he thinks should be given to poor countries. What a time to choose to say something like that, when there has been poll and poll showing people are just fed up to the back teeth with giving money to corrupt Gvts....and they say the Tories are out of touch, what a joke!

Angelina wrote:

Panda wrote:Yes Angelina of all the Ministers Cameron stands out as the most reactie, not proactive and to suggest that we have a Referendum AFTER the next election has that "vote for me if you want a Referendum" bribery note about it.
The way things are going , no one Party would win an outright majority so who would form a coalition with whom, Libdems are not even in the running to form a coalition IMO , and UKIP hasn't got an MP so the Election in 2015 will be a free for all.
I think any Party which says it will opt out of Human Rights and immediately stop further immigration unless you have a job to come to would win.

Absolutely right.

I didn't read or see it but I was told the other day about something Simon Hughes has recently said re all the money he thinks should be given to poor countries. What a time to choose to say something like that, when there has been poll and poll showing people are just fed up to the back teeth with giving money to corrupt Gvts....and they say the Tories are out of touch, what a joke!

There are more poor people today in Britain than since after the War years. I have twice made donations of foodstuff to Charities to distribute to the poor and this is happening all over the Country .!!!!!!

Panda wrote:

Angelina wrote:

Panda wrote:Yes Angelina of all the Ministers Cameron stands out as the most reactie, not proactive and to suggest that we have a Referendum AFTER the next election has that "vote for me if you want a Referendum" bribery note about it.
The way things are going , no one Party would win an outright majority so who would form a coalition with whom, Libdems are not even in the running to form a coalition IMO , and UKIP hasn't got an MP so the Election in 2015 will be a free for all.
I think any Party which says it will opt out of Human Rights and immediately stop further immigration unless you have a job to come to would win.

Absolutely right.

I didn't read or see it but I was told the other day about something Simon Hughes has recently said re all the money he thinks should be given to poor countries. What a time to choose to say something like that, when there has been poll and poll showing people are just fed up to the back teeth with giving money to corrupt Gvts....and they say the Tories are out of touch, what a joke!

There are more poor people today in Britain than since after the War years. I have twice made donations of foodstuff to Charities to distribute to the poor and this is happening all over the Country .!!!!!!

I guess that all depends one ones definition of poor. To me, having a mobile phone, Sky tv and a car are not poor but I do wonder quite how many of these people who can't feed themselves have actually got those things.

Fair enough, if they really haven't got money then I'm happy to help with food donations but I've seen poor in countries like Egypt and we are all rich over here.

The trouble is Angelina the young can pay £500 for Phone or 1Pad but with all the unemployed ranging from teenagers to middle age , how can they live on £60 a week unemployment benefit.? I would think most of the middle age unemployed are Tradesmen and always been used to working which makes it hard for them to adapt to life on the Dole.

Panda wrote:The trouble is Angelina the young can pay £500 for Phone or 1Pad but with all the unemployed ranging from teenagers to middle age , how can they live on £60 a week unemployment benefit.? I would think most of the middle age unemployed are Tradesmen and always been used to working which makes it hard for them to adapt to life on the Dole.

They do what my son did when times were hard....sell the expensive Iphone or Ipad (or both) and get the cheapest Pay as you go phone that they can, cut back on all the texts and calls...just use it when absolutely necessary. They need to stop expecting other people to finance their lifestyle, especially when a lot of other hard-working people have probably gone without the luxuries to pay their mortgates.

I'm not denying these things are hard but the culture of "we are owed a living or have a right to just be given everything" needs to stop.

I feel very sorry for anyone who wants a job but can't get one as I think that must be one of the most demoralising (sp?) situations to be in. What annoys me is those who want the luxuries at the expense of everyone else.

If I was Cameron, a long time ago I would have set up Training in one of the many empty Buildings in Town and employed qualified Tradesmen to teach the young a Trade and if they don't turn up , their benefit is stopped. If and when the Economy picks up , these youngsters will be qualified and be able to get a job. At the moment there is a shortage in the Civil engineering business and as soon as the housing market improves there will be trained Electricians, Plumbers , Bricklayers etc . The training will keep them out of mischief too which is a good thing.

Not far from where I live , at 10am in the morning on Friday a young opportunist smashed the window of a jeweller who always puts the batteries in my watch. Apparently they knocked him to the ground and made off with a handful of Jewellery before running away. I don't know if they have caught him yet but the Owner and his Wife run the Business and are in their 60's. I missed the News report so don't know what the outcome is but look how blatant these guys are, broad daylight and the shop is on a busy main road.!!!!!

Media Reactions

• 
  
  
  
  
  talloneonabike
  on
  twitter
  
  
  Today 09:06
  AM
  
  
  This is surprisingly good
  @Telegraph http://t.co/Ne5LXUsBSN
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  ellie_bennett_
  on
  twitter
  
  
  26 minutes
  ago
  
  
  RT @citycyclists: Boris
  Johnson: "My team think I am just too fat and clapped-out to cycle 100 miles"
  http://t.co/bRKHnntuo8 Actually, a really good read
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  MattOxby
  on
  twitter
  
  
  Yesterday 10:13
  PM
  
  
  RT @kayaburgess: Genuinely
  insightful and engaging article by Boris Johnson on his gruelling training for a
  100-mile cycle ride - http://t.co/bC1L6n7lZy
  
  

gardensbybike
on
twitter


Yesterday
08:50 PM



(Not often I tweet BoJo !)
-> Follow me, I’m doing my clanking bit to speed up the Age of the Bike via
@Telegraph http://t.co/nNFsNEYSWn

======================================
Some comments from the Boris Article ....he really would make a good Author.!!!! I hope he completes the bike ride , give him his due he is down to Earth whiich makes him so popular.

1. Home»
   

1. News»
   

1. Politics
   

Boris Johnson: leaving Europe a shot in the arm for democracy


British democracy would receive "a shot in the arm" if the UK left the
European Union, Boris Johnson has said.








The public would welcome a
British exit because people would feel they had won back control over their own
lives from Brussels, the Mayor claimed. Photo:
AP





By Tim Ross, Political
Correspondent

3:47PM BST 09 May 2013


933 Comments




Voters would feel they had regained control over their own destiny if Britain
became fully independent from Brussels, the Mayor of London said.


Mr Johnson warned that the country must be ready to "walk away" from Europe
if David Cameron failed to negotiate better terms of membership.


Mr Johnson's comments will fuel the increasingly fevered debate inside the
Conservative Party about European policy, which has flared after the success of
Ukip in last week's local elections.


The Mayor's intervention, at a conference of international business leaders
in London, followed an attack from the Prime Minister on Right-wing "pessimists"
who believed Britain's relations with Europe could never change.


Mr Cameron is under pressure from his backbench MPs to call a vote in the
Commons before the 2015 election on a Bill allowing a referendum on EU
membership.



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The Prime Minister has promised to hold talks to renegotiate the terms of the
UK's membership and then put a new deal to the British people in a referendum
after the next election.

While Mr Cameron has said he wants Britain to remain inside the EU, Mr
Johnson said quitting would not be "fatal" for Britain.

Speaking to reporters at the Global Investment Conference, Mr Johnson said he
remained "narrowly in favour" of staying inside the grouping of 27 member states
and supported David Cameron's policy of negotiating a new relationship for
Britain in the EU.

But he added: "If that fails then yes, obviously, we should be ready to walk
away," he said. "We should be ready to leave."

The public would welcome a British exit because people would feel they had
won back control over their own lives from Brussels, the Mayor claimed.

"If we are honest, I think, democratically, it would be a shot in the arm
because people would suddenly feel, yes, we are running our own destiny again,
our politics is entirely independent, British electors can choose the people who
are taking decisions that affect their lives.

"That would be a very important benefit."

However, it would be essential to ensure British businesses did not suffer
from losing trade in Europe.

Earlier, Mr Cameron had told the 300 conference delegates that he could
negotiate a new relationship for Britain with Europe.

Mr Cameron attacked the "pessimists" who believed he would fail, in a direct
rebuke to Tory grandees, such as Michael Portillo and Lord Lawson, who have
called for the UK to withdraw from the EU.

"There are some pro European pessimists who say, you have to, in Europe,
simply sign up to every single thing that anyone in the EU suggests.

You sign every treaty, you sign everything - there is no alternative.

"I think they are completely wrong," Mr Cameron said.

"The second group of pessimists say there is no prospect of reforming the EU,
you simply have to leave. I think they are wrong too.

"I think it is possible to change and reform this organisation and change and
reform Britain's relationship with

Boris trumps PM with visit to China


Boris Johnson is to visit China for a trade mission even though the Beijing
government is furious with David Cameron for meeting the Dalai Lama.








Asked whether the Prime Minister
would be accompanying him, the Mayor replied: 'Not unless he's hiding in the
hold' Photo:
Reuters





By Tim Ross, Political
Correspondent

10:19PM BST 09 May 2013





Mr Johnson, the Mayor of London, joked today that Mr Cameron's only route
into China would be if he stowed away in the hold of someone else's plane.



The Mayor is visiting China later this year to build trade links between the
capital and Beijing.


There are fears that Prime Minister is being frozen out in a stand-off with
the Chinese government, which was enraged by his decision to meet the Dalai
Lama.


Speaking to reporters at a conference in London, Mr Johnson disclosed that he
was going to China on a trade trip in October.


Asked whether the Prime Minister would be accompanying him, the Mayor
replied: "Not unless he's hiding in the hold."



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Beijing is demanding a public apology after Mr Cameron last year held talks
with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

China invested £8billion in Britain last year and there are fears that the
dispute could put this at risk.

Officials have played down concerns that infrastructure projects including
the High Speed 2 rail network and the Government’s nuclear programme could miss
out on billions of pounds of investment from China as a result of the row.

However, Downing Street sources have admitted that they have struggled to
confirm meetings with senior figures in the Chinese government as a result of
the row.

Number 10 has refused to apologise to the Chinese government for meeting with
the Dalai Lama.

Earlier this week, Downing Street made it clear that ministers “will decide
who they meet and where they meet them”.

Beijing has in previous years sought to punish countries whose leaders meet
the Dalai Lama, who disputes China’s territorial claims on the region.

Speaking at the Global Investment Conference in London, Mr Johnson, who has
been tipped as a successor to Mr Cameron as Tory Leader, stressed that his own
relations with China were good.

He told delegates that he held talks with Chinese investors today over
potential projects in the Royal Docks.

Investors from Malaysia and Qatar were already putting money into London, Mr
Johnson said.

"Though we, like the rest of Europe are suffering from a lack of demand, we
are seeing a lot of confidence and investment in London," he said.

The Mayor outlined his demands for improving London's economy, including
building a new hub airport and keeping taxes low.

"We must sort out a visa system that is still holding back too many sectors
in our economy, not least higher education," Mr Johnson said.

"We must be tax competitive - we must have stable and low taxation in London.


"And we must not continually bash sectors in which we are naturally and
historically strong, not least, banking and financial services, which contribute
£63 billion in tax to the economy