"Prat" Boris dismisses PM ambitions

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Thought I'd share this one simply for having one of the best headlines I've seen for a while (courtesy of yahoo news):

Boris Johnson has dismissed talk of him becoming the next prime minister as he joked: "How could anybody elect a prat who gets stuck in a zip wire?"

London mayor Mr Johnson was repeatedly asked in an interview on ITV Daybreak if he would like to be the next prime minister but dismissed speculation as a "silly season" story.

The mayor was shown footage of him stuck last week on a 150ft high, 1,000ft long zip wire at the London Live event in Victoria Park, east London, when he was left hanging over a crowd of people for several minutes as the wire lost momentum.

"There you have got it, how on earth could you elect that guy? How could anybody elect a prat who gets stuck in a zip wire?" Mr Johnson joked. "I tell you what happened, I was trying to publicise our live site in Victoria Park, which is a wonderful place, by the way."

He added that the experience had been "slightly scarier" than it appeared, joking that his actions had been "heroic."

"After I got stuck on that thing, we did have a big increase in the number of visitors, so it wasn't totally fatuous, contrary to appearances," he said.

Asked by Daybreak presenter Kate Garraway if he fancied being prime minister, he responded: "No, of course not, because I have got four years of mayor of London ahead ... perhaps this is the moment to knock this once and for all on the head?"

In his interview, Mr Johnson insisted that the long-term economic benefit of the Olympics to London was "massive".

"Around the world people are looking at pictures of London. They are seeing a happy city, a city of fantastic places to visit and they are going to want to invest in this city," he said.

He added that one of the most moving aspects of the Olympics had been the number of people who volunteered to help: "They are doing stuff in their own free time. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we could mobilise them, and people who want to join them, through Team London to help with sport in schools?"

[SiHart]

Boris Johnson has dismissed talk of him becoming the next prime minister as he joked: "How could anybody elect a prat who gets stuck in a zip wire?"

Londoners did...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

They actually did so twice! Amazing!

[Si Hunt]

We're supposed to think "I like that guy! He can laugh at himself". It's all so contrived.

It's a double bluff though. Him calling himself a prat is masking the fact that he actually is one.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Oh Boris! Don't put yourself down so much! You may be a prat stuck on a zip wire but we love you because you are so funny and have silly hair!

That's what he hopes we're thinking.

[Stuart Wallis]

And here I was, reading the title and thinking that Boris was going to do save us from David Cameron! No such luck!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Hmm, that rings a bell somewhere...



"But I that am not shaped for sportive tricks nor made to court an amorous looking glass..."

[Anthony Williams]

Gosh, is there no love for Boris at all here!?

While I may have previously supported Cameron and his colleagues in government, my faith in them has been seriously depleted over the last eight months. Boris is the only Tory that I still like!

[Si Hunt]

What puts me off him is when I read about the fiasco with the buses. Every time Boris gets in, he scraps the buses Ken ordered and orders up brand new "Boris Buses" (how egotistic to name them after yourself) and every time Ken gets in he scraps the other ones and brings back his! Nice that these two rich politicians are chucking millions of pounds of our cash about for their own ego-trip!

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

Actually, I never thought I'd be coming to the defence of Ken, but here goes!

I think you're being a little unfair there, Si! Ken scrapped the old Routemasters that were outdated and getting increasingly difficult to repair, and replaced them with the bendy buses. He's never scrapped Boris' buses, because he's never got back in since Boris got elected. When Boris came in in 2008, he had made an election promise to scrap the extremely unpopular bendy buses, and replace them with an updated version of the Routemasters. Something which he's now doing. It was in his manifesto, ergo he is expected to do it.

It's not as if the two have repeatedly swapped positions as Mayor and just brought their buses back!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Going back to Boris, it's interesting that everyone loves him for his bumbling personality (cf. Mark Rylance's version of Richard III pictured above) but one can't help wonder about the fact despite recent allegations about his relatioships to the Murdoch owned press he's still smelling of roses unlike most of his party colleagues... what is he whispering in people's ears behind closed doors one wonders...



"You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment..."

[Anthony Williams]

I do find that interesting, Richard. It seems that the Tory Party have their own version of "Teflon" Tony. Of course, that veneer can't (and won't) last forever. Eventually, he will fall from grace and the press (Murdoch owned, and otherwise) will turn on him, as tends to happen eventually to most politicians.

[Si Hunt]

what is he whispering in people's ears behind closed doors one wonders...

"Don't you think David Cameron looks tired"?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

When Boris got into power, Transport for London ditched a lot of ongoing projects, including 'Thames Gateway', which would have been a new bridge to take the pressure off Blackwall Tunnel. All of the development money on these projects was wasted. Interestingly, one of the projects that was too far down the line to ditch was a new system of cycle 'hire' around London.

TfL had also spent money adjusting most of the junctions in London so that they would be suitable for the bendy buses. I guess that's unnecessary now!

But that's what any new Mayor would have done. Short-termism!

[Stuart Wallis]

The thing about Boris is, he's Gordon Brittas by any other name: fun to watch, but is he really the sort of person who you want to be in charge of things?