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

malena stool wrote:Quote
George Osborne has vowed to water down the plans as the rules are formally drafted. But Mr Johnson urged him to go further, and invoke the “Luxembourg Compromise”, which allows an EU government to block a majority decision when it is detrimental to the national interest.

“It is time for the Government to invoke the Luxembourg compromise and strike down this measure,” he said. “I hope Brussels will think again. It’s not just hostile to the greatest financial centre on earth. It’s hostile to growth across the EU. If this did succeed, people would just head off to New York or Singapore.”

We are hamstrung as a trading nation by treatise and pacts signed by God knows who or when, which allow second rate bankers and back street spivs in Brussels, Germany and France to dictate who we trade with?
What bright spark agreed to this?
As a trading nation we have always succeeded although often at no small cost! The very nations that are trying to shackle us have never managed to better our success by the use of open and fair trading, they may well yet succeed by using foul methods if someone doesn't step up and put an end to the constant flow of money across the channel to Europe and the restrictions imposed on our way of life by what is little more than the 4th Reich of Gauleiter Merkel!
[/quote]

Just seen this Malena you are spot on there

I am quite curious as to why this thread is so popular, it started off with me suggesting Boris would be the next PM and overnight had 90 hits???
Maybe it's Cameron's spies
Anyway, I honestly don't think Britain, Europe or the U.S. will dominate trade and the Economy, it will be China, Brazil, Japan, etc because they don't rely on Banks to produce income or have the indebtedness of Europe and the U.S..
I remember the name Andrew Gilligan , but can't remember from where. Seems the artful Boris is quite capable of Political skullduggery, I'm disappointed. I also think he may not be able to escape his committment to being the Mayor of London ...we shall see.

Boris Johnson reveals plans for UK's largest floating village


Mayor of London Boris Johnson said the capital would have a major role to
play in Britain’s economic recovery as he revealed plans to build the UK’s
largest floating village at the city’s Royal Docks.








The Mayor’s plans for the Royal
Victoria Dock site will see 15 acres of water developed into hotels,
restaurants, bars and new homes. Photo: REUTERS/Olivia
Harris






By Angela Monaghan

8:20PM GMT 12 Mar 2013


90 Comments




Mr Johnson said London was benefiting from a post Olympics boom, with the
capital “at the top of investors’ lists”, driving building and jobs.


“London is the locomotive of the UK. We have got to stop talking the language
of austerity. That is not a policy for economic growth.”


Speaking at Mipim, the annual international property conference held in
Cannes, the Mayor said the UK must “stop bashing the industries in which we are
strong”, citing the financial services sector.


He said growth would come from supporting the banks as well as building up
newer sectors.


The Mayor’s plans for the Royal Victoria Dock site will see 15 acres of water
developed into hotels, restaurants, bars and new homes.



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When it is built it will be one and a half times the size of Green Park in
central London, with transport links including a new Crossrail station, DLR, and
a cable car linking it to central London and Canary Wharf.

“This site is unique. It has the potential to become one of the most sought
after addresses in the capital while breathing new life back into London’s
waterways,” Mr Johnson said.

The formal procurement process to create “the Venice of London” will begin
this summer. International developers must have a London-based partner to
qualify for work on the scheme.

The Major said the Government needed to do more to boost the construction
sector and infrastructure to drive UK growth.
==================
What a great idea, not encroaching on the Green Belt , in Central London .....well done Boris.!!!!

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  buffinihurley
  
  5 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  Good Thinking Boris, Island for all those in Government with Water on the
  Brain
  
  
  
  
  
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    by 1 person
    
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  drg40
  
  6 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  No point in knocking this initiative if Boris can make a viable proposal. The
  value of 16 acres of new building land in the centre of London, where house
  prices of the "right" developments are still going into orbit, is unbelievable.
  IMV all he has to do is indicate the sort of plan which may get approval and
  then demand applicants form an orderly queue.
  
  Bristol could consider the same, only bigger and
  better.
  
  
  
  
  
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  Mohammad Chaudhry
  
  10 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  Boris, the dynamic Mayor of London,seems to be driven by the visualization of
  Sheikh of Dubai for mega projects. However the economic stabilization calls for
  addressing the ground realities in an effective manner and can not be
  materialized through simple and quick fixes. This in turn calls for analytical
  evaluation of objective realities.
  
  
  
  
  
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  multi0312
  
  11 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  Good on him. Man of vision. Wish he would crack on and build the airport as
  well.
  
  
  
  
  
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  ExasperatedMe
  
  18 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  His office floor must be covered in straw and male bovine
  excrement.
  
  
  
  
  
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  Kyle Harrison
  
  21 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  Once again London leads the way, can't wait to move there. It's the only
  place in Britain with any business spirit. The north has been infected with
  Labour statist ideology- dependent on redistributed welfare from the south.
  Until the redistribution is stopped and the north is made to stand on its own
  feet more, it will never become its own engine for economic growth.
  
  By the way, all those people moaning about this, it is never gonna be the 60s
  again. The mass scale manufacturing economy is gone, we do manufacture things
  now but it is done by university graduates not by men in oil stained clothes.
  That's just the way it is now.
  
  
  
  
  
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  MichtyMe
  
  10 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  Per capita public expenditure is greater in London than any part of the UK
  except Northern Ireland. Its prosperity is based on the state, it is where the
  state is centralised and concentrated.
  
  
  
  
  
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  bedfordjohn
  
  22 minutes ago
  
  
  
  
  I know who I would put on it. Put it in the Atlantic
  somewhere.
  
  
  
  
  
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Boris Johnson: quit leadership grumbling and back the PM


Boris Johnson will tell senior Conservatives to rally behind David Cameron
and end continued speculation about the Prime Minister's leadership.








Mayor of London Boris Johnson
and Prime Minister David Cameron gesture during the lighting of the Paralympic
cauldron in Trafalgar Square, London Photo: Yui
Mok/PA





By Peter Dominiczak, Political
Correspondent

7:30AM GMT 15 Mar 2013





The Mayor of London will issue a plea for unity after weeks of rumours about
Tory ministers plotting their own leadership bids.


Mr Johnson’s intervention came after Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was
accused by Cabinet colleagues and Conservative backbenchers of trying to
establish herself as a prospective party leader.


The Telegraph understands that the Mayor will appeal for ministers and
backbenchers to give the Prime Minister their full backing in the built-up to
the next general election.


Mr Johnson believes that ministers positioning themselves and fuelling
rumours about Mr Cameron’s leadership need to stop if the Tories are to win a
majority in 2015.


Mr Johnson’s career is the subject of persistent speculation at Westminster
following two election victories and a successful Olympic Games.


However, he has insisted that he will serve his full four-year term as mayor
and repeatedly denied that he has ambitions to one day lead the Conservatives.


His backing, coming just one day before the Tory’s crucial spring conference,
will come as a major boost to the Prime Minister.

Mr Johnson has also suggested that George Osborne, the Chancellor, should cut
the top rate of tax in next week’s Budget.

He used a trip to France to say that he “wouldn’t oppose” a further cut in
Britain’s top rate from 45p to 40p.

“Sooner or later we’ve got to have stable, low taxes in the UK,” Mr Johnson
told the Evening Standard.

“The point I’d make is that if we want evidence that high tax rates are
uncompetitive and damaging you’ve just got to look at what’s happening in
France.

“Hollande has got tax rates up to 75 per cent and tax rates generally have
gone up on modest incomes and that’s a point that I’ll try and make about
London. If you have uncompetitive tax rates you’ll start migrations.”

It comes as Grant Shapps, the chairman of the Conservative Party, publicly
conceded that the Tories may not win the next election.

Mr Shapps said the Conservatives would have to show "leadership and vision"
if they were to stand a chance of gaining an outright majority in 2015.

However, in a warning to would-be leadership challengers, he stressed that Mr
Cameron remained more popular in the country than the party as a whole.

Mr Shapps also criticised members of the Liberal Democrats, calling them
"cockroaches" and dismissed Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, as a
"commentator on the economy".

In an interview with Parliament's The House magazine, he played down the
Conservatives' poor performance in the Eastleigh by-election, where they were
beaten into third place behind Ukip.

"Mid-term by-elections have a long, almost proud tradition in this country of
having a protest party win," he said.

However, he acknowledged there was no guarantee they would recover in time
for the next general election in two years time.

"We may or may not win the next election but my God we need to finish this,
the job of stopping this country going bust, fixing the mess that Labour left,
or at least as far as we can," he said.

"If it's not finished, we will be asking to come back and finish it as a
majority government. We need to show people we have the leadership and vision to
do that."
============================
I doubt Boris will be able to renage on his appointment as Mayor of London in 2017 . It would not help his credibility if he did and he would need to establish himself as a Tory MP by the end of 2014. He is still quite young so could try for the 2019 Election because he probably knows the Tories may not win the 2015 Election.

Boris Johnson: Build airports, power plants and railways on the
countryside


Boris Johnson has suggested that vast swathes of the English countryside
should be used for airports, railways and nuclear power plants.








Mr Johnson said the rules would
only harm Europe Photo:
AP





By Peter Dominiczak, Political
Correspondent

3:15PM GMT 15 Mar 2013


328 Comments




Mr Johnson, the London Mayor, used a speech in Paris to call on the
Government to be more “ruthless” in the way it builds on the countryside in the
future.


Ahead of George Osborne’s Budget next week, Mr Johnson said he “wished we
could be French in our approach to infrastructure”.


It comes after Mr Johnson called for unity in the Tory Party and warned
senior ministers positioning themselves for the party leadership to “put a sock
in it and back the Prime Minister”.


Mr Johnson, who has called for a new four-runway airport to be build in the
South East, said he felt “envy” at the French approach to building projects.



“I flew in to Charles de Gaulle and I looked down with envy at the four
runways, the terminals elegantly disposed across a vast tract of countryside,
and like so many other British politicians of the last 60 years, I wished we
could be French in our approach to infrastructure,” Mr Johnson told the
Franco-British Chamber of Commerce.



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“And I wished we could imitate the ease and ruthlessness with which the
French send high speed trains streaking across the landscape.

“And as the light bulbs of Britain flicker, I am lost in admiration for the
historic French decision to build enough nuclear reactors to supply 75 per cent
of your power needs, and in the next 30 years we in Britain will now try to
catch up while French companies raise the capital for even more ambitious
investments.”

Mr Johnson also used his speech to defend the City of London from European
Union interference.

He said the whole of Europe would suffer if “ill thought-out” measures such
as the bankers’ bonus cap were imposed on the UK.

Britain was earlier this month defeated after being outnumbered 26 to one
over the controversial EU proposals to impose caps on bonuses paid to bankers.


Under the new rules annual bonuses will not be allowed to exceed a banker’s
salary, starting next year.

Bonuses of twice annual salary will be allowed if shareholders approve them.
Experts have warned that the decision will damage the City.

Mr Johnson said the Government should “paralyse” the negotiations and not
“give in” to Brussels over the issue.

“If the French government was faced with something like the bonus cap they
would not tolerate it,” he said. “They would paralyse negotiations and refuse to
have further discussion until they got an agreement. That’s what I think we
should do, not give in.”

Mr Johnson added: “I hope you will agree London is an asset for France, and
an asset for Europe and that it makes no sense for us to attack the Continent’s
number one financial centre with bonus caps or any other ill thought-out
measure.

“Those bankers will not vanish to France or to Frankfurt. They will go to
Singapore or Hong Kong or New York and we will be senselessly degrading one of
the EU’s greatest commercial assets.

“In picking on London I am afraid such measures risk inflaming sentiment in
the UK where the arguments for and against membership are more finely
balanced…Whatever these measures are meant to achieve they will do nothing to
solve the problems of the eurozone.”

If Boris was PM at least he would liven things up a bit and give us all a laugh.

cherry1 wrote:If Boris was PM at least he would liven things up a bit and give us all a laugh.

Behind the boyish exterior cherry 1 lies a razor sharp intellect , but his down to earth approach and sense of humour would be a great asset in communicating with the Public, something Cameron has failed to do. Sadly, I don't think he will make it as PM in the next election because of his commitment as Mayor of London.

he certainly is not a fool - just acts like one

cherry1 wrote:he certainly is not a fool - just acts like one

I think he would make a great PM, very up=beat , down to earth and the scheme for the london Docks is excellent. Don't like his theory that the Banks are untouchable.

Path clears for Boris Johnson as Tories fear defeat


A Conservative MP has told David Cameron that he would hand over his seat to
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who is widely seen as a future Tory leader.









Photo: Yui
Mok/PA






By Robert Watts, Deputy Political
Editor

9:30PM GMT 16 Mar 2013




Sir Peter Tapsell, who represents the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth and
Horncastle, made the frank admission after he was asked by the Prime Minister if
he would stay on in the Commons until the next election.


Mr Cameron said the party could do without another by-election. The veteran
MP duly replied that he was “keeping his seat warm for Boris”.


An increasing number of Tories believe the mayor is a potential Conservative
leader, with the ebullience and popular appeal to win elections.


But Mr Johnson has pledged to stay on as mayor until 2016 and could only
stand in a Tory leadership contest if an MP offered to give up their seat after
the next general election.


Sir Peter’s offer is the clearest of its kind made by a Conservative MP so
far and came as Westminster was awash with rumours of plots by Tories
positioning themselves to succeed Mr Cameron. His exchange with the Prime
Minister has become a subject of some gossip between fellow backbenchers.




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When approached by The Sunday Telegraph, Sir Peter said he thought Mr Johnson
would be an “excellent” leader of the Opposition and “perhaps” even a good prime
minister.

However, he strongly denied being part of any Boris “camp”, adding that his
seat could be too far from London to be suitable for Mr Johnson.

“The problem is my seat is a long way from the TV studios,” said Sir Peter,
who has a majority of nearly 14,000. “Boris would want to be closer to them.”


Many Tories fear that Mr Cameron will again fail to secure an election
victory in 2015. Up to 25 of the party’s MPs have indicated that they would be
prepared to force a leadership election if Wednesday’s Budget or the local
elections in May prove disastrous for the party.

Over the past few weeks, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Adam Afriyie, a
backbencher who represents Windsor, are both said to have been positioning
themselves to succeed Mr Cameron.

Mr Johnson has kept out of the recent leadership speculation. There have
already been suggestions that Zac Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond Park, and
Richard Ottaway, who represents Croydon South, would give up their seats for Mr
Johnson.

At times, Mr Johnson has been a thorn in the side of Mr Cameron, calling for
tax cuts and suggesting that the Liberal Democrats have been given too much
clout in government. However, in Paris last week, he urged those seeking to
replace Mr Cameron to “put a sock in it and back the Prime Minister”.

During the same interview, Mr Johnson likened himself and the Prime Minister
to Wallace and Gromit, the Plasticine film characters. He declined to say which
of the pair was the hapless inventor and which was the loyal dog with more brain
power.

Yesterday in a rousing speech to Tories at their spring conference in London,
Mr Cameron tried to reconnect with the grassroots. Many in the party have been
left dismayed by the coalition with the Liberal Democrats and the introduction
of gay marriage.

Mr Cameron said: “We are people who love our country, who believe in
Britain’s greatness – and believe in restoring it.”

He added: “We want people to climb up through their own efforts, yes, but in
order to climb up they need the ladder to be there in the first place, the
family that nurtures them, the school that inspires them, the opportunities
there for them.

“Great Conservatives down the generations have put those ladders in place:
when Churchill invented the labour exchanges that helped people into work, when
Macmillan built new homes, when Thatcher fired up enterprise so people could
start their own businesses.”

Many of the more critical MPs see Wednesday’s Budget statement as a key test
for Mr Cameron as well as for George Osborne, the Chancellor.

One senior backbencher urged the Chancellor to deliver an array of “radical”
pro-growth and tax-cutting moves. “The mood of the party is pretty bad because
of a number of things … the state of the economy; gay marriage has upset a lot
of people; the unattractiveness of coalition government,” he said.

“A lot of colleagues, particularly with smaller majorities, are weighing up
whether to risk the damage of a leadership challenge or not. They simply cannot
see how the current leadership can win a majority in 2015.”

He added: “This is not the time for a steady-as-she-goes Budget. We need tax
cuts and other radical moves to get the economy moving again. Chancellors are
judged on results and this one’s aren’t impressive.”

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By Boris Johnson

10:15PM GMT 17 Mar 2013


444 Comments




OK, don’t take it from me. Listen to the voice of international business.
Every year they do surveys, and they ask global executives to name the best
place to do business – and every year London is named number one commercial
capital in Europe, if not the world.


I could offer you all sorts of glib explanations. We have an outstanding
financial centre; we have more green space than any other European city, more
museums than Paris, less rainfall than Rome, twice as many bookshops as New York
(and about a quarter of the murder rate). Crime has fallen 13 per cent in the
past four or five years – to pick a period entirely at random.


We now boast a fast-improving transport network that includes the best bike
hire scheme on earth, and a beautiful new hop-on, hop-off Routemaster-style bus.
We have just put on a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic Games that showed off
some of London’s opportunity areas, where the money is now piling in – as if
from bullion-bearing spaceships that have been circling the planet for the past
five years in search of the safest place to land.


All these are fabulous advantages, and yet I don’t think they quite explain
the world’s confidence in London as a location to trade and invest. When the
moneymen are deciding where to do a deal, there is something more fundamental
that brings them here – a feature of our culture and society that has been true
for hundreds of years.


They know that London is about as uncorrupt as any jurisdiction on earth.
They know that the deal will be honoured. They know that the law will be clear,
and that their security to title is good. They know that they will not be tipped
out of their hotel beds before breakfast and detained by the emanations of the
state. They know that they will not be imprisoned without trial. They know that
to do a deal in London, you don’t have to cut some minister in on the action, or
employ their half-witted relative.



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You cannot hope to win a contract in London by sending some public official a
Rolex or a midnight poule de luxe; and that is because that official would be
too amazed to accept, too honourable to accept, and above all too terrified to
accept. British business, and British politics – and the nexus between business
and politics – have been kept cleaner than in virtually all other countries
because for centuries we have had a free press.

It was in the late 18th century that the libertine MP and Mayor of London
John Wilkes had his epic battles with the governments of George III, and
vindicated his right to publish his scabrous views of that government, as well
as an idiotic and pornographic poem. It was in the following decades that London
grew into the richest and most powerful city on earth – the first since imperial
Rome to be home to a million souls.

There can be absolutely no doubt that this rise to commercial greatness was
partly made possible by those freedoms won in the 18th century – an independent
judiciary; habeas corpus; freedom of assembly; the right of voters to choose
their representatives; and above all the freedom of the press to speak truth to
power: to ridicule, to satirise – even to vilify – and to expose wrongdoing.


Of course, not every businessperson or investor may personally relish the
exuberance and ferocity of the British media. They may not enjoy reading about
their salaries, yachts and subterranean swimming pools. But they also know – or
should rationally accept – that it is the very boldness of the British press,
and its refusal to be bullied or cowed, that makes those deals risk-free and
helps them create the wealth they enjoy. Like any strong detergent, the work of
the British media may cause a certain smarting of the eyes. But if you want to
keep clean the gutters of public life, you need a gutter press.

Since the days of Wilkes, the media have been lifting up the big, flat rocks
to let the daylight in on the creepy-crawlies; and in all that time we have
never come close to the state licensing of newspapers. Not, that is, until
today, when MPs must vote on the potentially calamitous proposals put forward by
Labour and the Lib Dems.

Everyone accepts that the papers have behaved with vileness and stupidity
towards the McCann family, and the bereaved relatives of Milly Dowler. Everyone
wants to protect innocent members of the public from such bullying and abuse,
and all would now accept that the old Press Complaints Commission was about as
much use as a chocolate teapot.

Yes, as some of us have been saying since long before Leveson was even a
twinkle in the PM’s eye, it would be a good thing if there was a beefed-up
regulatory body that had the power to impose rapid and draconian fines and to
demand apologies for the falsehoods and intrusions perpetrated by all
contracting papers.

But if Parliament agrees to anything remotely approaching legislation, it
will be handing politicians the tools they need to begin the job of cowing and
even silencing the press; and what began by seeming in the public interest will
end up eroding the freedoms of everyone in this country. It is a completely
retrograde step, and will be viewed with bemusement by human rights
organisations around the world.

All my life I have thought of Britain as a free country, a place that can
look around the world with a certain moral self-confidence. How can we wag our
fingers at Putin’s Russia, when we are about to propose exemplary and crippling
fines on publications that do not sign up to the regulatory body? How could we
have criticised the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez?

I wholly approve of the stance taken by my fellow Daily Telegraph columnist
Fraser Nelson in refusing to sign up to any of it, and if I were editing The
Spectator today, I hope I would do the same. It is time for Parliament to
remember the commercial and political freedoms that made this country great.
Think of Wilkes, and Liberty, and vote this nonsense down.

Not many agree with Boris , there are some very good replies. this is one:
Ogmius

Yesterday 01:14 AM






The Press brought it on themselves: they think that it's OK to bribe
policemen and other officials? They it's OK to hack people's phones? They think
it's OK to pay silly money to paparazzi to hound "celebrities", sometimes t0
their death?

I curse the Press as much as I curse the venal and corrupt politicians and
officials with whom, away from the headlines, the Press is perfectly happy to
hobnob in cosy dinners and private parties. Journalists and politicians were
made for each other, a marriage made in hell.

And who are the great losers? We are.

19 March 2013 Last updated 23rd Marchr





Boris Johnson 'would like to be PM'





Boris Johnson said being PM would be "a great thing to have a
crack at"

Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

• Is Boris a future Tory leader?
  
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Boris Johnson has admitted that he
would like to be prime minister but insists "it's not going to happen".

In a forthcoming BBC Two documentary, the mayor of London says he thinks the
job of PM is "very, very tough".

But he will say he would like to "have a crack" at it "if the ball came loose
from the back of a scrum".

The mayor has been talked up as a possible future Conservative leader, but he
has always said he would see out his second term as mayor until 2016.

Documentary maker Michael Cockerell told the Radio Times that when asked
whether he harboured any desires for the top job, Mr Johnson answered: "I think
it's a very tough job being prime minister.

"Obviously, if the ball came loose from the back of a scrum - which it won't
- it would be a great, great thing to have a crack at,"

"But it's not going to happen."
'World King'

Mr Johnson's sister Rachel, who also features in the programme says her
brother had high ambitions from a young age.

Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

This is a truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman
undergraduate arrogance, toffishness and twittishness,”

End Quote Boris Johnson on the
Bullingdon Club
"As Boris was growing up whenever anyone asked him what
he wanted to be, he would answer: 'World King'," she told the programme - Boris
Johnson: The Irresistible Rise - to be broadcast later this month.

She also revealed that the mayor, who went to Eton school with David Cameron,
still feels a "continuing superiority" over his younger schoolmate.

"When they're together it's rather sweet, because David Cameron - even though
he's taller - looks at Boris as if he's still head boy at Eton," she said.

"Remember, Cameron was two years younger - the young pup."
'Twittishness'
In the documentary, Mr Johnson says he feels embarrassed about his past as a
member of the notorious Bullingdon Club, a dining group for ex-public schoolboys
at Oxford University, whose members also included Mr Cameron.

"This is a truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate
arrogance, toffishness and twittishness," he said.

"But at the time you felt it was wonderful to be going round swanking it up.
Or was it? Actually I remember the dinners being incredibly drunken."

Boris Johnson and David Cameron
both went to the same school
Asked about the club's reputation for smashing up restaurants, he admitted:
"Yes. And the abiding memory is of deep, deep self-loathing."

Mr Johnson also reveals there is a strategy behind his public persona: "As a
general tactic in life, it is often useful to give the slight impression that
you are deliberately pretending not to know what's going on - because the
reality may be that you don't know what's going on, but people won't be able to
tell the difference."

It is not the first time Mr Johnson has spoken about his desire to be prime
minister.

In 2005 - at a time when David Cameron was about to become Conservative
leader - Mr Johnson told the BBC that it was important for society, "in an
evolutionary sense", that politicians believed they could rise to the top.

"I suppose all politicians are like, in the end, crazed wasps in a jam jar,
each individually convinced that they are going to make it and get out and
survive," he told Desert Island Discs.

"The point is that in a Darwinian way the public needs politicians to want to
get as far as they can and that's how I would justify it."

Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise will be broadcast on BBC Two at
21:00 GMT on 25 March
=============================
Make a note of the time and date, should be interesting.!

http://www.bhttp://www.http:

Boris Johnson on The Andrew Marr Show: Full
interview





24 March 2013 Last updated at 11:12 Help

Ahead of a BBC documentary about him, Mayor of London Boris Johnson has said
"people just don't care" about his past, adding they have greater interest in
the economy.

Interviewed by Eddie Mair on The Andrew Marr Show, Johnson said the UK
economy benefited from the influx of "skilled workers around the world" but this
led to a "real indignation" among UK workers.

The Mayor admitted there was a lack of planning ahead of the financing of the
Olympic Stadium in Stratford but said the deal to allow West Ham United to play
at the venue would help provide £10m a year to the taxpayer.

Johnson, talking about a BBC Two documentary, dismissed his sacking by The
Times, and by Michael Howard, and agreeing to supply the address of a journalist
whom a friend wished to 'beat up' as unfair representations.

Asked about ambitions to be Prime Minister, Johnson said he wished to serve
his remaining time as Mayor and secure a Conservative win at the next general
election and added speculation over his career was a "measure of the triviality"
in politics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21916721

Boris Johnson on The Andrew Marr Show: Full
interview





24 March 2013 Last updated at 11:12 Help

Ahead of a BBC documentary about him, Mayor of London Boris Johnson has said
"people just don't care" about his past, adding they have greater interest in
the economy.

Interviewed by Eddie Mair on The Andrew Marr Show, Johnson said the UK
economy benefited from the influx of "skilled workers around the world" but this
led to a "real indignation" among UK workers.

The Mayor admitted there was a lack of planning ahead of the financing of the
Olympic Stadium in Stratford but said the deal to allow West Ham United to play
at the venue would help provide £10m a year to the taxpayer.

Johnson, talking about a BBC Two documentary, dismissed his sacking by The
Times, and by Michael Howard, and agreeing to supply the address of a journalist
whom a friend wished to 'beat up' as unfair representations.

Asked about ambitions to be Prime Minister, Johnson said he wished to serve
his remaining time as Mayor and secure a Conservative win at the next general
election and added speculation over his career was a "measure of the triviality"
in politics.

Mr Johnson, widely considered a potential successor to David Cameron, looked
distinctly uncomfortable as he was grilled about past misdemeanours on the BBC's Andrew Marr
Show.


Ahead of a new documentary about his life, the London Mayor was first
questioned about allegations that he made up quotations in a piece of
journalism.


_(Credit:BBC)


He told his interviewer Eddie Mair that these were "big terms" for what
happened, before going on to admit he had "mildly sandpapered" the truth. He
said this was "very embarrassing" and he is now "very sorry about it".



Things got worse for Mr Johnson as he was then forced to field questions
about an alleged extra-marital affair. Mr Mair asked whether he had told
"barefaced lies" to Tory leader Michael Howard when he denied a relationship
with Petronella Wyatt, a fellow journalist. Mr Johnson was sacked as a shadow
minister over the episode in 2004.



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"On that, I never had any conversation with Michael Howard about that
matter," he said. "I don't propose to go into all that again. I've been into
that question a lot."

He then tried to deflect the interview by saying: "Why don't we talk about
something else?"



_(Credit:BBC)



But Mr Mair pressed on, insisting his questions were about the Mayor's
"integrity".

He asked why Mr Johnson was taped agreeing to supply an address to a friend,
Darius Guppy, who wanted to get someone beaten up.

The Mayor pointed out that he had never actually supplied an address and had
never intended to do so.



_(Credit:BBC)



Mr Mair put it to the Mayor that making up quotes, lying to a party leader
and agreeing to be part of a plan to get someone physically assaulted suggested
he was a "nasty piece of work".

Mr Johnson strongly disputed this accusation.

"If we had a long time, which we don’t, I could explain that I think all
three interpretations you’re putting on those things aren't wholly fair," he
said.

"Certainly the final thing which you raise which is the case of my old friend
Darius, yes it is certainly true that he was in a bit of state and I did humour
him in a long phone conversation, from which absolutely nothing eventuated, but
I think if any of us had our phone conversations bugged, people say all sorts of
fantastical things."

Mr Johnson then tried to turn the conversation away from his past by arguing
he thought he "was coming on to talk about the budget and what's happening in
London."
=================
You must admit he has a way with words....."mildly sandpapered the truth". When asked if he wanted to be PM he said not in 2015m maybe
after the next Election , I doubt very much if he could resign as Mayor of London.

Blogs Home » News » Politics » Dan Hodges





Dan Hodges

Dan Hodges is a Blairite cuckoo in the Miliband nest. He has worked for the Labour Party, the GMB trade union and managed numerous independent political campaigns. He writes about Labour with tribal loyalty and without reservation. He is on Twitter at @dpjhodges.






Boris Johnson's Eddie Mair interview: if Boris's private life is fair game, then so is everybody else's




By Dan HodgesPoliticsLast updated: March 24th, 2013
284 CommentsComment on this article


I’ve just sent the Eddie Mair interview with Boris Johnson that everyone’s raving about. By common consent, it was tough broadcast interviewing at its best.
Well, not for the first time, the common consensus is wrong. It was a disgrace.
Actually, it wasn’t a disgrace. It was perfectly legitimate journalism, so long as we all agree that grilling people about the details of their private lives, accusing them of guilt by association , and openly abusing them is legitimate.
The portion of the program that has got people on their feet relates to the moment Mair started asking Johnson about a documentary about him due to be broadcast tomorrow night.
Question one was about the occasion 25 years ago when Johnson was sacked as a trainee reporter for The Times for fabricating a quote from his own godfather, Colin Lucas. You could argue that’s a fair question if you’re planning to interview Boris Johnson for a job as your news editor. The relevance in 2013 to his duties as Mayor of London is less clear.
Question two was about the fact that when, he was Tory leader, Michael Howard asked Johnson if he was having an affair. Johnson reportedly denied it. Which was stupid. He should have told Howard it was none of his business. In the same way it’s none of Eddie Mair’s business, my business, your business or anyone else’s business, aside from the parties directly involved.
Question three related to a telephone conversation Johnson had in 1990 with his friend Darius Guppy, in which Guppy asked him to supply the address of a fellow journalist so he could assault him. The address was never supplied. The journalist wasn’t assaulted.
Question four wasn’t actually a question, but a statement. "You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you?" said Mair.
Question five didn’t even pretend to be a question, “Your friend Conrad Black, a convicted fraudster, even he says he doesn’t trust you completely.”
Eddie Mair and the BBC would no doubt argue their line of questioning was entirely reasonable. Indeed Mair claimed this was about Boris Johnson’s “integrity”.
And that’s fair enough. If the Mayor of London is lying to people about issues relating to his duties, that’s very serious. If he’s fabricating information that’s equally serious. If he’s running around his own capital city getting journalists beaten up, that’s even more serious. Especially for the producers of the Andrew Marr Show.
The problem was, none of the questions about his integrity related to Boris Johnson’s duties as mayor. They were reheated tittle-tattle, most of which dates back quarter of a century.
But so what? Boris Johnson is a grown-up doing a grown-up’s job. Eddie Mair is, actually, one of the BBCs best, and most tenacious, interviewers. If you can’t stand the heat, and all that.
It’s not the interview I object to. It’s the response to the interview. This, apparently, is now the gold standard. Judging by the wave of adulation sweeping Twitter, it’s exactly how we want our politicians, and other public figures, to be held to account.
Fine. But if Boris Johnson’s private life is in bounds, so is everyone else’s. If issues of personal integrity are of such importance, great. But let’s hear no more squealing when Ed Miliband is asked about knifing his brother. If something Johnson wrote in 1988 is of relevance, fair enough. But why the bleating about the scrutiny John O’Farrell received for something he wrote in 1998? If we want interviewers casually asking people if they’re “a nasty piece of work”, I’m up for that. But then please, no more about “dumbing down”, or the paucity of the level of our political discourse. And no cries of “bullying” when the first female politician gets subjected to a similarly robust interrogation.
Some people out there may be shocked by the revelation Boris Johnson isn’t the new George Washington, though I’m not one of them. And if Eddie Mair has just set the new gold standard for political interviews, I haven’t got a problem with that. But I suspect some of those cheering now soon will.

=================================
Well, that's a turn-up a Labourite defending a Conservative.!!! I agree with him and thought when I was watching the programme that Boris and his family were subjected to unnecessary embarassment over incidents that happened many years ago.

Listen: Boris Johnson sings Bob Marley


Listen to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, serenade journalists with his
rendition of the song he'd like played at his funeral: Three Little Birds by Bob
Marley.















560
315
TelegraphPlayer_9954888






"
















By Michael Deacon, Parliamentary
Sketchwriter

2:23PM GMT 26 Mar 2013


102 Comments




At the end of Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise
on BBC Two last night, the Mayor of London revealed that he’d “like to be the
lead singer of an international rock group”.


To judge by the above recording, however, it seems that lovers of music have
had a lucky escape.


This morning Mr Johnson visited London Bridge station to launch Gigs 2013, a
busking competition. A reporter asked the Mayor what piece of music he’d like
played at his funeral.


“Ah!” cried Mr Johnson. “Is that an event you’re looking forward to?”



He pondered for a moment.



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“Maybe Three Little Birds,” he concluded
triumphantly. “Three Little Birds! Yup!”

And with that, he abruptly turned to your bemused sketchwriter and serenaded
him with the above rendition of Bob Marley’s 1980 hit single.

“Smiled with the risin’ sun, three little birds on my doorstep, singing’
sweet songs of melodies pure and true…”

It’s not every day that the Mayor of London sings Bob Marley while gazing
into your eyes, but I can confirm that the experience is every bit as moving as
you would imagine.

Having delighted his audience long enough, Mr Johnson confessed that he
hadn’t yet watched last night’s much-discussed documentary about him.

“No, I couldn’t do it last night,” he said. “I tried to get my iPlayer to
work this morning but it didn’t work. But I’ve seen enough in the papers to know
that all the stuff I told the excellent presenter about jobs and growth in
London [was edited out]. I didn’t see the fact that we’ve cut Tube delays by 40
per cent since I’ve been Mayor, that we have reduced crime by 13 per cent, that
we’ve built a record number of affordable homes, or that unemployment is now
going down for the first time since 2009… those facts, I’m afraid, I don’t think
made it into the documentary.”

And had the Prime Minister sent him a message of congratulation, to let him
know what he thought of the documentary?

“Erm…” said Boris. He smiled. “I don’t think so, no.”

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1. Culture»
   

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Boris Johnson: the Irresistible Rise, BBC Two, review


Benji Wilson reviews the BBC documentary, Boris
Johnson: the Irresistible Rise, in which Michael Cockerell interviewed the
London Mayor.




4.5







Boris Johnson: the Irresistible
Rise - the London Mayor with Michael Cockerell. Photo:
BBC





By Benji
Wilson


10:02PM GMT 25 Mar 2013

101 Comments




When Twitter started trilling on Sunday with “Boris Johnsonin car crash TV interview”, I dropped everything, croissant included,
and high-tailed it to YouTube. It was vintage Johnson, Johnson premier cru – on
the face of it taking a rinsing from Eddie Mair about past indiscretions, and
yet once the harrumphing was done the abiding feeling was, “that was another
wonderful piece of telly starring Boris Johnson.”


It was the exact same effect induced by Michael Cockerell’s film Boris
Johnson: the Irresistible Rise last night on BBC Two. Regardless of what you
think of Johnson’s politics or predilections, the man is TV gold. In the name of
journalistic objectivity Cockerell’s film dutifully included musings from
Boris’s sister Rachel, his father Stanley, former editors and school chums. Some
of it was moderately revealing, but the money shot was the blond bombshell, live
and unleashed.


Cockerell is undoubtedly a fine reporter; on this evidence he is also a wily
film-maker. His coup was to get Boris sat in a bunker surrounded by three large
screens. It was like a prolonged interrogation scene from Zero Dark Thirty, but
instead of waterboarding, Cockerell induced mental agony by projecting footage
of unpleasant Boris-baiting imagery such as that Bullingdon photo, or Rachel
Johnson explaining how everything comes back to the fact that Boris was head boy
at Eton and Cameron wasn’t.


Boris’s exasperated responses encapsulated precisely why his rise will indeed
most likely prove irresistible. He would do that thing where he shakes his hands
in front of him like he’s throttling a cow. The yellow moptop – a piece of
branding far stronger than the Conservative green tree – remained exquisitely
disarranged. And then the words, oh the words! No one talks like Johnson. Even
if you don’t give a fig for the man or his ambition, fair reader, drink in the
parlance. When surrounded, literally, by the incriminating Bullingdon photo
Boris looked at his shoes and then came out with this: “Ah yes, I congratulate
you on defying the censors and bringing this appalling image once again before
public view. It is a truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate
arrogance and toffishness and twittishness. But you know,” – bumble, grovel,
scratch, cough – “it was great fun at the time. Or was it? Actually the awful
truth about all that business was… The abiding feeling was of deep, deep, deep
self loathing.” Then he pointed at Cockerell with both hands, like he was
passing him a spittoon.


Time and again you were reminded that his hyperbolic Boggle – from “inverted
pyramid of piffle” to “the Geiger counter of olympo-mania is going to go zoink
off the scale” –­ is inimitable. At a time when all other politicians are about
as lapel-grabbing as the Emmerdale omnibus, he could make a fortune on pay per
view. Which is why when he said, “This programme was such a bad idea,” he said
it with a smile. Just as there is no such thing as a “car crash interview” when
it features Boris, so there is no such thing as a bad programme with him in it.




Related Articles

The man is a complete disgrace and has no idea what British kids have to go through to get a decent job....

http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/08/boris-johnson-blames-lazy-brits-for-losing-out-on-jobs-to-hard-working-immigrants-3587183/

Does he not realise that immigrants can live cheep in garden sheds and bunk beds.

Lioned wrote:The man is a complete disgrace and has no idea what British kids have to go through to get a decent job....

http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/08/boris-johnson-blames-lazy-brits-for-losing-out-on-jobs-to-hard-working-immigrants-3587183/

Does he not realise that immigrants can live cheep in garden sheds and bunk beds.

They're certainly living somewhere cheap judging by the number of mothers with kids in Starbucks every day. The latest clothes, latest mobile phones etc.

"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

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.

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?