Tory supporters launch savage attacks on ‘unguided’, ‘insincere, incoherent, evasive’ Boris Johnson
Tory supporters who particularly know Boris Johnson from his journalistic activity have today launched unrestrained attacks on the Tory candidate for Mayor of London and his complete inability to run London.
Simon Heffer writing in today's Daily Telegraph says:
"one of Mr Johnson's failings is a belief that the public is there to serve him, not vice versa. He has given much pleasure to millions over the years, but will that cause the Underground to work better, the Metropolitan Police to catch more criminals, or business to thrive in London? Or would a Johnson mayoralty be yet one more chapter in an epic of charlatanry - perhaps, since it is so serious a job with potentially no hiding place, the last chapter?
"Mr Johnson will regard the job as a stepping stone to a Cameron cabinet (I have always expected Mr Johnson, in great old age, will befriend the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, covering all bets about a better place in Paradise).
"Oddly enough, given how acute he is, that won't persuade him to do it properly. The guiding theme of his life is the charm of doing nothing properly. His sins themselves are charming in that they are the sort of failings that upset the Edwardians, and few others since.
"He is pushy, he is thoughtless, he is indiscreet about his private life. None of this matters much to anyone these days, which is why he has gone so far in spite of them, and tomorrow may go further still.
"Lynton Crosby, the Australian public relations genius who has kept Mr Johnson out of trouble during his campaign, returns home after it.
"Then what? Who will guide the unguided missile? Who will support the figurehead? Who will ensure he turns up on time, or at all? How will they be accountable?"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/30/do3001.xml
Peregrine Worsthorne, writing in the online journal The First Post:
"Never before having had the opportunity to observe Boris trying to conduct himself seriously and responsibly, I have to confess that his various attempts to do so last week were deeply disappointing. He just can't do it. The harder he tried, the more insincere, incoherent, evasive and even puerile he looked and sounded, even enabling the liberal candidate to score points. Take away the gags and jokes and nothing much is left...."
In contrast Worsthorne said on Ken Livingstone: "Last week was also the first time I observed much of him on TV, and I was worryingly impressed. For unlike Boris he showed that he could be both witty and serious at the same time."
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/31907,opinion,a-serious-boris-you-must-be-joking