Why Boris turns the air – and the polls – blue

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2012/may/01/boris-turns-air-blue-polls

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Just weeks after Boris Johnson made the headlines for calling Ken Livingstone "a fucking liar" during a row about their respective tax arrangements in a lift, he has been at it again. On this Monday's lunchtime news he accused the BBC's Tim Donovan of talking "fucking bollocks" about Johnson's attempts to secure sponsorship from News International for a cable car in London's East End.

The result? As a No 10 source reportedly told one newspaper, "Every time Boris swears he gains three points in the polls", and sure enough he got an instant boost. Hardly what you would expect, given that Tory ratings have been tumbling recently over the budget fiasco and Huntgate, and the conventional political wisdom is that swearing is a complete no-no for career advancement.

Sure, John Major got a certain amount of respect for calling three rightwingers in his cabinet "bastards", but the then-prime minister was unaware he was being recorded and, more significantly, this was the first time we began to think there might be more to him than being the dullest man in Britain. Whatever else you may think of Johnson, he isn't dull.

When David Cameron was talking about Twitter in a 2009 radio interview and said, "too many twits make a twat", many saw it for what it was: not a gaffe, but a calculated soundbite, designed to make him look "down wiv the kidz". As most people think he is even more objectionable when he's angry than when he's not, he would be unwise to start copying Boris.

So why does Boris get away with it? The answer is that the public make allowances for him that they wouldn't for anyone else. They forget he is as much part of the elite Tory political class as Cameron and Osborne and see him as an everyman joker. Someone, like them, who doesn't always take life too seriously. Who, when the chips are down, will say: "Sod the deficit, let's get pissed and have a shag."

That is a misjudgement. Boris is nobody's fool and his image is calculated down to the last wisp of carefully pre-tousled hair. He could easily stop himself swearing if he wanted to: he has done hundreds, if not thousands, of broadcasts without being potty-mouthed. So, if he has sworn twice within a month, it's almost certainly no accident. He's done it because he knows it's a vote winner.