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| Let's hope the Boris Johnson bubble has burst – for London's sake | Let's hope the Boris Johnson bubble has burst – for London's sake |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| Such is the market penetration of Brand Boris that two days after Eddie Mair's Teflon-scratching interview, Johnson still dominates the headlines. It's a phenomenon barely challenged by the bulk of those paid to hold politicians to account. Johnson is so feather-bedded by broadcasters and press that Slumberland should name a mattress after him. Even unflattering coverage, such as he sometimes receives from the two-faced moralists of the Mail, concentrates on the appetites, the ambitions and larger-than-lifeness, to the exclusion of what he does and doesn't do in the post of London mayor. | Such is the market penetration of Brand Boris that two days after Eddie Mair's Teflon-scratching interview, Johnson still dominates the headlines. It's a phenomenon barely challenged by the bulk of those paid to hold politicians to account. Johnson is so feather-bedded by broadcasters and press that Slumberland should name a mattress after him. Even unflattering coverage, such as he sometimes receives from the two-faced moralists of the Mail, concentrates on the appetites, the ambitions and larger-than-lifeness, to the exclusion of what he does and doesn't do in the post of London mayor. |
| Westminster village journalists, addicted to his rivalry with David Cameron, could hardly be less interested in what he does with his power, influence and £16bn budget in the capital city, where his decisions daily influence more than 8 million lives. There was little mention of all that in Michael Cockerell's television portrait last night, which was mostly a continuation of the speculation industry that's flourished around Johnson's yearning to become prime minister – an industry that serves those who perpetuate it and, of course, Johnson himself, very nicely indeed, yet produces precious little but hot air. | Westminster village journalists, addicted to his rivalry with David Cameron, could hardly be less interested in what he does with his power, influence and £16bn budget in the capital city, where his decisions daily influence more than 8 million lives. There was little mention of all that in Michael Cockerell's television portrait last night, which was mostly a continuation of the speculation industry that's flourished around Johnson's yearning to become prime minister – an industry that serves those who perpetuate it and, of course, Johnson himself, very nicely indeed, yet produces precious little but hot air. |
| What's all the fuss about? Johnson's talent as an entertainer stands out because it's novel on the public stage he occupies, but he's a pretty average politician. His record at City Hall is unremarkable at best, his policies robo-Conservative. His every tiny difference with the government is inflated into headlines, but please note his strong support for its core objectives, including its doomed bid to reduce the housing benefit bill – his famous "Kosovo" comment was not a criticism of the policy (he made that clear the next day), but a refusal to accept its implications, now playing out across the metropolis. | What's all the fuss about? Johnson's talent as an entertainer stands out because it's novel on the public stage he occupies, but he's a pretty average politician. His record at City Hall is unremarkable at best, his policies robo-Conservative. His every tiny difference with the government is inflated into headlines, but please note his strong support for its core objectives, including its doomed bid to reduce the housing benefit bill – his famous "Kosovo" comment was not a criticism of the policy (he made that clear the next day), but a refusal to accept its implications, now playing out across the metropolis. |
| When he became mayor in 2008, helped into the post by some staggeringly spiteful journalist chums, Johnson inherited a strong programme of transport and housing projects, promised a fresh focus on some difficult youth issues and personified a social liberalism that was unusual among Conservatives, especially those who, like him, inhabit his party's economic right. There seemed to be good reasons for reserving judgment, even for some guarded optimism. | When he became mayor in 2008, helped into the post by some staggeringly spiteful journalist chums, Johnson inherited a strong programme of transport and housing projects, promised a fresh focus on some difficult youth issues and personified a social liberalism that was unusual among Conservatives, especially those who, like him, inhabit his party's economic right. There seemed to be good reasons for reserving judgment, even for some guarded optimism. |
| Five years on, with a second mayoral mandate and no wish to seek a third, the social liberalism and winning persona have survived, but the youth programme has floundered, and his best results elsewhere owe more to others – Transport for London, Sebastian Coe – than to him. Some of the most devoted of those media chums are now on his payroll, primarily, it seems, because they are his chums – "I have the confidence of the mayor" is how one of them has dignified this utter shamelessness – and his policies in the key areas of mayoral responsibility are driven by the most orthodox of Tory instincts and blindest types of Tory faith. | Five years on, with a second mayoral mandate and no wish to seek a third, the social liberalism and winning persona have survived, but the youth programme has floundered, and his best results elsewhere owe more to others – Transport for London, Sebastian Coe – than to him. Some of the most devoted of those media chums are now on his payroll, primarily, it seems, because they are his chums – "I have the confidence of the mayor" is how one of them has dignified this utter shamelessness – and his policies in the key areas of mayoral responsibility are driven by the most orthodox of Tory instincts and blindest types of Tory faith. |
| His ideas about what makes a big city flourish have lacked insight, depth and nerve, failings cemented by his electoral and ideological desire to please private motorists and big money interests. On Monday he published his crime and policing plan, the first of its type in the land. It is an exercise in populist dazzlement, 90 pages of sophistry propping up a handful of slogans: "bobbies before buildings" and so on. Political opponents have been focusing on the budget cuts it seeks to manage – in truth, the one aspect of the document that engages with reality – but its real flaw is its intellectual thinness. "Designed to grab headlines" was the verdict on the work in progress of a former Home Office criminologist, a description that could be applied to the entire Johnson mayoralty. | His ideas about what makes a big city flourish have lacked insight, depth and nerve, failings cemented by his electoral and ideological desire to please private motorists and big money interests. On Monday he published his crime and policing plan, the first of its type in the land. It is an exercise in populist dazzlement, 90 pages of sophistry propping up a handful of slogans: "bobbies before buildings" and so on. Political opponents have been focusing on the budget cuts it seeks to manage – in truth, the one aspect of the document that engages with reality – but its real flaw is its intellectual thinness. "Designed to grab headlines" was the verdict on the work in progress of a former Home Office criminologist, a description that could be applied to the entire Johnson mayoralty. |
| As the Telegraph's star columnist, Johnson is also Rupert Murdoch's apologist-in-chief. The Evening Standard's proprietor has bought him a luxury foreign holiday, its editor picking up the bill for his taxi home from the airport. "Good old Boris" is a media confection, pampered and indulged by all but a handful of London specialists. His nastiness or otherwise isn't really the point. The value of Mair's barb has been its deflating just a little the bubble of protective privilege within which the mayor of London has been allowed to operate for far too long. |