“Norman Tebbit in clown’s uniform”
08.21.07 - 07:10pm
While I would usually have little time for a pressure group which campaigned to put Gordon Brown in office I cannot ignore Compass’ report on the world according to Boris Johnson.
I fully acknowledge that when considering the pronouncements over time of any individual, public figure or otherwise, caution is warranted. All of us say things we regret or come to realise are incorrect and later retract or repudiate.
Much of what the report details is relatively trivial or simply for comedy effect. Nevertheless, some of his opinions and indeed activities, summarised here, go beyond the knockabout of what passes for normal politics in this democracy-deficient nation and into the realm of the unconscionable.
Among the more sordid episodes in the report is his agreeing to supply friend and convicted fraudster Darius Guppy with a journalist’s address, knowing that Guppy was planning to have the journalist beaten up, with “a couple of black eyes and a… cracked rib”.
He also has a nice line in pub level racism, referring to black people as “picaninnies” and talking of ignorant Africans as breaking out into “watermelon smiles” at the arrival of the great white leader Tony Blair. Way to turn out the black vote there, Boris.
But the most revolting is his claim that the problem with Britain’s former colonies is “not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more”. I am unfortunately forced to acknowledge that this garbage, playing down as it does the basic immorality and pervasive brutality of our colonial past, does have some appeal to the Daily Mail-reading set.
Even so, this little dossier, which characterises Johnson as “Norman Tebbit in clown’s uniform”, may yet give the Tories pause for thought when it comes to deciding their candidate for London Mayor.
I’m not sure whether Boris will be that right wing, but I feel that Ken has been rattled. The fact he has attacked Boris for receiving advice on crime from Lee Baca shows that Ken will stoop low. London needs advice on gun, drug and gang crime - not relationships with dodgy South American despots.