Boris Johnson.....just DONT..

[Delusional Pengoon]

If Ken Livingstone is such a disaster ... how come he's TWICE won the election for Mayor of London?

I voted for Ken because the alternatives were a Frank 'cardboard personality' Dobson and Shagger Norris (after shifty Jeffrey Archer had to pull out...which makes a change).

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

I just can't see Boris appealing to single mums on a council estate in Lewisham, or pensioners in Wormwood Scrubs (the area, not the prison!) near where I live. I doubt many of London's older Tories -- typically people who've had a long career in one trade, or running their own business -- will flock to him either.

Boris will get the trendy young professional vote. There are lots of those in London, but there aren't that many.

Say what you like about Ken, but from what I've seen with him he can connect with just about everybody. He's made a few silly and offensive comments (er, just like Boris has) but at least he means what he says the rest of the time.

By the way, London has been "multicultural" for more than a hundred years... it's not some kind of Ken Livingstone initiative.

 

[Chicken Run]

If Ken Livingstone is such a disaster ... how come he's TWICE won the election for Mayor of London?

Go on tell us...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

errrr..... no!!! This is what really upset them about Johnson

Spectator 16 October 2004

. They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it. Part of this flawed psychological state is that they cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it, thereby deepening their sense of shared tribal grievance against the rest of society. The deaths of more than 50 Liverpool football supporters at Hillsborough in 1989 was undeniably a greater tragedy than the single death, however horrible, of Mr Bigley; but that is no excuse for Liverpool’s failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon. The police became a convenient scapegoat, and the Sun newspaper a whipping-boy for daring, albeit in a tasteless fashion, to hint at the wider causes of the incident.


http://www.spectator.co.uk/archive/the-week/12691/bigleys-fate.thtml

Sorry Cheshire, I'll be sure to use the SARCASM smiley next time.

 

[Bluejuice]

Why would anyone vote to get rid of Ken?

Say what you like about him as a person but he's done a bloody good job so far and has more experience than all other possible candidates combined

 

[bigc]

I just can't see Boris appealing to single mums on a council estate in Lewisham, or pensioners in Wormwood Scrubs (the area, not the prison!) near where I live. I doubt many of London's older Tories -- typically people who've had a long career in one trade, or running their own business -- will flock to him either.

Boris will get the trendy young professional vote. There are lots of those in London, but there aren't that many.

Say what you like about Ken, but from what I've seen with him he can connect with just about everybody. He's made a few silly and offensive comments (er, just like Boris has) but at least he means what he says the rest of the time.

By the way, London has been "multicultural" for more than a hundred years... it's not some kind of Ken Livingstone initiative.

There are less of the trendy young professionals because the buggers all came down to Brighton and set up pubs with stupid names and liv in "converteed townhouses" and eat in ultimate burger instead of uncle sams.

Am I correct in thinking boris has NO link to london? Insult Ken by all means on many fronts, but he is a Londoner born and bred(Lambeth to be precise). You make a good point Mr Pevensey, and I would like to see him try and canvass in Brixton, where I work. That would make for some fun entertainment.

What is Lewisham like these days? I have a friend from there and while he says it used to be quite bad, I've heard it's improving now?

Buzzer, I thought it was Ian Hislop who derided anything about Britain(he's a cynical little twat) as opposed to Paul Merton. I wasn't aware Ken had Andy Murray like feelings in sport, I just thought he found it boring(unlike newts?). I also wasn't aware he was anti-semitic, I just thought he had a habit for saying stupid things, but if I had a journalist pestering me...

Top marks for calling the US ambassador a snivelling little crook though

 

[wigman]

boris is a twat! end of thread!

 

[Beach Hut]

Boris is standing for Mayor - marvellous scenes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6900326.stm

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Buzzer, I thought it was Ian Hislop who derided anything about Britain(he's a cynical little twat) as opposed to Paul Merton. I wasn't aware Ken had Andy Murray like feelings in sport, I just thought he found it boring(unlike newts?). I also wasn't aware he was anti-semitic, I just thought he had a habit for saying stupid things, but if I had a journalist pestering me...

Top marks for calling the US ambassador a snivelling little crook though

Totally agree with you about Hislop, he has the easiest job, be snide about everybody and everything 'cos he never has to say anything constructive.

Oh, and I think you'll find Andy Murray was joking with his comments about not supporting England in the world cup, although he doesn't come across to well, so it sounded worse.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

If Ken Livingstone is such a disaster ... how come he's TWICE won the election for Mayor of London?

Because he has undoubted appeal to the Proletariat!

 

[bigc]

Totally agree with you about Hislop, he has the easiest job, be snide about everybody and everything 'cos he never has to say anything constructive.

Oh, and I think you'll find Andy Murray was joking with his comments about not supporting England in the world cup, although he doesn't come across to well, so it sounded worse.

I blame Hislop and Merton(god I sound like that Harry Enfield character) for the rise of Boris Johnson, due to the fact they continuially got Boris on as a guest presenter after they'd got rid of Angus and effectively ruined the show.

Oh he isn't confirmed as candidate, he has to run again other MPs.

I just think this shows how little judgement Cameron has. Boris has NOTHING to lose, he does badly, he'll just laugh about it and be his usual self and the usual crowd will find it funny, but for Cameron, he'll look like a complete idiot.

You don't trust the biggest city in Europe to a man who is far more suited to the country life. I doubt Boris even knows urban strife exists.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

After this ................

........he'd get my vote.

That is a wugger man playing football - like he'd be a country boy in the city.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Boris Johnson DESERVES to be Mayor of London, just for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMmsBo02Fls

sorry Hiney - should have checked first ................

 

[bigc]

After this ................

........he'd get my vote.

That is a wugger man playing football - like he'd be a country boy in the city.

Shame steyning isn't a part of Greater London aye?

 

[Brovion]

Before the 2000 election I met Livingstone, Norris, Dobson and Susan Kramer (the Lib Dem candidate). Out of these, strictly from the point of view of the organisation I was working for, easily the best candidate was Steve Norris. He appeared to be the only one who had bothered to do any research. Livingstone was funny to talk to but clueless. The other two were just clueless.

 

[GUNTER]

This man should be instated for his human rights work:

 

[bigc]

Before the 2000 election I met Livingstone, Norris, Dobson and Susan Kramer (the Lib Dem candidate). Out of these, strictly from the point of view of the organisation I was working for, easily the best candidate was Steve Norris. He appeared to be the only one who had bothered to do any research. Livingstone was funny to talk to but clueless. The other two were just clueless.

Norris wants to run again but Dave "dumb mr bandwagon" Cameron smells publicity with Johnson. To be honest, I'm DEFINITELY no Tory, But Norris has never come across badly and I don't think he'd do a bad job at all. His anti-Jeffrey Archerness was nice too.

I noticed the "people of London" get to decide the Tory candidate. Another gimmick from Dave? I'll be voting for whoever seems the worst candidate

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I think Pete Doherty should be Mayor of London. Give him something constructive to do, to keep him out of trouble.

 

[NMH]

I think Pete Doherty should be Mayor of London. Give him something constructive to do, to keep him out of trouble.

Does the Mayor get the job of picking up roadside rubbish then??

 

[Napper]

errrr..... no!!! This is what really upset them about Johnson

Spectator 16 October 2004

The Leader
Bigley's fate

The soccer international between England and Wales last Saturday managed to display in an instant two of the most unsavoury aspects of life in modern Britain. A request by the authorities for a minute’s silence in memory of Mr Ken Bigley, the news of whose murder by terrorists in Iraq had broken the previous day, was largely and ostentatiously ignored. Yet the fact that such a tribute was demanded in the first place emphasised the mawkish sentimentality of a society that has become hooked on grief and likes to wallow in a sense of vicarious victimhood. There had been a two-minute silence for Mr Bigley that same morning in Liverpool, according him the same respect offered annually to the million-and-a-half British servicemen who have died for their country since 1914.

No one can make light of the appalling fate suffered by the hostage. His imprisonment, his witnessing of the shocking murders of his two fellow hostages and his own hideous decapitation by the psychopathic criminals who kidnapped him provide an object lesson in human depravity and barbarity. But we have lost our sense of proportion about such things. There have, as a correspondent to the Daily Telegraph pointed out this week, been no such outbreaks of national mourning whenever one of our brave soldiers is killed serving his country in Iraq.

The extreme reaction to Mr Bigley’s murder is fed by the fact that he was a Liverpudlian. Liverpool is a handsome city with a tribal sense of community. A combination of economic misfortune — its docks were, fundamentally, on the wrong side of England when Britain entered what is now the European Union — and an excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians. They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it. Part of this flawed psychological state is that they cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it, thereby deepening their sense of shared tribal grievance against the rest of society. The deaths of more than 50 Liverpool football supporters at Hillsborough in 1989 was undeniably a greater tragedy than the single death, however horrible, of Mr Bigley; but that is no excuse for Liverpool’s failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon. The police became a convenient scapegoat, and the Sun newspaper a whipping-boy for daring, albeit in a tasteless fashion, to hint at the wider causes of the incident.

Now, part of the disproportionate convulsion of grief for Mr Bigley is prompted by the assertion that the Prime Minister has the hostage’s ‘blood on his hands’. That is nonsense. None of us can say with perfect confidence how we would behave in such circumstances, and facing such psychological pressures, but in so far as Mr Bigley chose to blame Tony Blair or the British government, he was wrong. Only those who killed him have blood on their hands. The truth is that Ken Bigley sought to make a living by undertaking work in one of the most dangerous areas on the planet. He went there against the express advice of the Foreign Office. He chose to live with a pair of Americans and seemed unconcerned about his personal security. His motives and misjudgments do not lessen the horror and injustice of his death; but they should, without lessening our sympathy for him and his family, temper the outpouring of sentimentality in which many have engaged for him. It is a form of behaviour that was kick-started in this country after the death of an even more ambiguous figure, the late Diana, Princess of Wales. As a manifestation of our apparently depleted intelligence and sense of rationality, it bodes extremely badly for this country.

Mr Bigley might not have read the last entries in Captain Scott’s journals, but they have a resonance for him: ‘We took risks. We knew that we took them. Things have turned out against us. Therefore, we have no cause for complaint.’ Captain Scott’s mentality used to be the norm for chancers and adventurers. Now, after generations of peace and welfarism, and in a society where the blame and compensation cultures go hand in hand, our modern-day buccaneers seem determined to go about their activities not merely unprepared for the likely consequences, but indignant about them. It is time we recognised that, in such a situation, it is not a breach of natural justice that the Lone Ranger does not come galloping over the horizon; it is exactly how life is. In our maturity as a civilisation, we should accept that we can cut out the cancer of ignorant sentimentality without diminishing, as in this case, our utter disgust at a foul and barbaric act of murder.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/archive/the-week/12691/bigleys-fate.thtml

some of it is true though