The first time I saw him I thought he was a caricature of one of those ‘eccentric’ upper class conservatives like you see on Harry Enfield and friends....
Later I found out he was ‘for reals’!
He was always pretty amusing on HIGNFY, but is he really qualified to be mayor of good old Londinium?
My reaction to the news was, as similar to your title, “Boris f***ing Johnson is Mayor? You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me!”
Someone I know said they suspect that Boris plays the bumbling fool, which is fine when there are no important issues, but he’ll prove a shambles if anything like terrorist attacks or something happen.
Well, to be fair, depending on the city government, a mayor can be anywhere between supreme dictator to figurehead. I would imagine that a city as drenched in laws and regulations as London is it would be very difficult for a Mayor to have any impact.
He reminds me (especially in those pitures) of a comical orchestra conductor. Flapping wildly with his arms while his hair flies about. Literally. As the toupee flips over his face with one of the more wild contortions.
Well, to be fair, depending on the city government, a mayor can be anywhere between supreme dictator to figurehead. I would imagine that a city as drenched in laws and regulations as London is it would be very difficult for a Mayor to have any impact.
Wrong.
Red Ken managed to make one hell of a mark. Congestion Charges, the bane of 4x4 owners everywhere in the London area, were his idea.
True.. *minor* stuff, though, compared to, say, rezoning the entire town as landfill, or bulldozing senior centers to give his buddies a place to park their cars.
We’ve had our share of idiot mayors in this town, some of whom have pulled some rather epic legislation. My personal favorite was the one who got the anti-loitering laws pulled, resulting in a dramatic upspike in homeless people pretty much setting up outdoor living rooms in public areas. This was combatted a few years later by a public drinking ordinance. Very unpopular with the colelge crowd, of course, until they found otu it was only going to be enforced on a per-complaint basis.
How is making everyone driving a non-hybrid car pay a toll to enter London not epic? And it’s about double for 4x4s. The man changed London’s infrastructure. For the better.
He did a lot of other stuff too but that’s the biggie. Mayor of London can get a lot of stuff pushed through. Loitering laws would be small potatoes for him. Not that it’d matter because old London town is hoaching with tramps anyway.
From The Guardian, Boris Johnson in his own words:
The Guardian -
On homosexuality
“Gay marriage can only ever be a ludicrous parody of the real thing.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2005
“If gay marriage was OK - and I was uncertain on the issue - then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.”
· From his book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen, 2001
“We don’t want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage, and that is why I am more than happy to support Section 28.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2000
“The clerics gave us [journalists] a wigging for being so mean to the Church of England ... Why did we draw attention to tricky subjects like homosexuality, aka the Pulpit Poofs issue?”
· The Spectator, 2000
“I’m not bisexual so far ... not that I would condemn myself if I later discovered I were.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2008
On Africa
“No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”
· In 2002, on Tony Blair’s visit to the Democratic of Republic of Congo, Daily Telegraph
“Right, let’s go and look at some more piccaninnies.”
· Reported remark, while visiting Uganda, to Swedish Unicef workers and their black driver, the Observer, 2003
On the Commonwealth
“It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2002
On failing to recognise his Filipina housekeeper
“When our housekeeper appeared on stage in her hot pink strapless number [as a finalist of the Mrs Philippines 2005 contest in London], I failed at first to recognise her, surrounded as she was by 10 other Filipina mums, each shimmering in every shade from fuchsia to Germolene ... Was that Luz, the No 6, the one with the cleavage? Or was she No 5, with the smile? Surely she wasn’t No 11, the one with the legs. No: wait - that was her, with her hair up. No 8! ‘We want eight,’ we screamed, and waved at good old Luz, a woman who has been exposed to the full horror of the Johnson family washing and yet contrived to look little short of $1m.
· The Spectator, 2005
On his prospects
“My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”
· The Independent, 2004
George Bush and Iraq
“He liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2004
“The Americans were perfectly happy to go ahead and whack Saddam merely on the grounds that he was a bad guy, and that Iraq and the world would be better off without him; and so indeed was I.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2003
On Islam
“The most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers.”
· The Spectator, 2005
On race
“I’m down with the ethnics. You can’t out-ethnic me, Nihal ... My children are a quarter Indian, so put that in your pipe and smoke it.”
· To Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Asian Network, 2008
On cannabis
“It was jolly nice. But apparently it is very different these days. Much stronger. I’ve become very illiberal about it. I don’t want my kids to take drugs.”
· GQ, 2007
On sex
“I’ve slept with far fewer than 1,000.”
· On whether he has slept with fewer than 30 women, like Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, Daily Telegraph, 2008
“An inverted pyramid of piffle.”
· The Mail on Sunday, 2004, on allegations that he had an affair with Petronella Wyatt, later confirmed.
On obesity
“Nothing but their own fat fault.”
On transport
“I don’t believe [using a mobile phone at the wheel] is necessarily any more dangerous than the many other risky things that people do with their free hands while driving - nose-picking, reading the paper, studying the A-Z, beating the children, and so on.”
· Daily Telegraph, 2002
“The whole county of Hampshire was lying back and opening her well-bred legs to be ravished by the Italian stallion.”
· GQ, while in a Ferrari
On Liverpool
“A society that has become hooked on grief and likes to wallow in a sense of
vicarious victimhood.”
· A Spectator editorial, 2004 (Johnson didn’t write the editorial, but he approved it)
On his arts role
“Look, the point is ... er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it.”
· On being appointed Tory Arts spokesman, 2004
On stag hunting
“I remember the guts streaming, and the stag turds spilling out on to the grass from within the ventral cavity ... This hunting is best for the deer.”
· From his book Lend Me Your Ears
Some of this could have been taken out of context if meant in a sarcastic manner, particularly some of the ‘racist’ remarks. Not PC by any means, but not necessarily indicative of any actual beliefs. Not having ever heard of the guy before this I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other.
Some of this could have been taken out of context if meant in a sarcastic manner, particularly some of the ‘racist’ remarks. Not PC by any means, but not necessarily indicative of any actual beliefs. Not having ever heard of the guy before this I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other.
No, he’s not being sarcastic. He’s an imbecile.
He’s an old-school Tory, ridiculously out of whack, tactless and offensive. But stupid. Very stupid.
