Robert Taylor applauds the delightful tenure of London's mayor, Boris Johnson, who is now leading in the results for his re-election (but it's tightening even as I write):
He is not only cool but hilarious. His shock of unruly blond hair looks like a wig chosen and fitted by a toddler. He admitted that he once tried to snort cocaine, but sneezed and failed (beat that, Bill Clinton). He has the kind of face, even at rest, that makes people giggle. He could quite easily be a game-show host — in fact he's occasionally been the guest host on Britain's leading TV satirical news quiz, and it's compulsive viewing. At last count, a YouTube video of him tripping himself up then inadvertently rugby tackling an astonished opponent in a celebrity soccer match between England and Germany has attracted half a million hits and thousands of delighted comments.
Boris is a bizarre combination of posh scholarliness, gaffes (including a very public extra-marital affair that would be career-ending for ordinary mortals, but only strengthened his appeal), bumbling ineptitude, and startling political insight and ambition. Beneath it all he's a conservative to his fingertips.
And he's not afraid to drop f-bombs. I knew Boris at Oxford, and was a supporter of his in the web of politics that is the Oxford Union debating society. When he was elected London mayor, I could barely believe it. But he appears to have pulled it off with the key element for a truly successful politician: pure charm and disarming honesty. If he's re-elected, though, and the results for the Tories in the local elections are as dismal as they appear to be, he's also a potential rival to David Cameron as prime minister. The Coalition has had an awful few weeks, and its austerity measures, yet to be fully felt, have already led to a new recession. Turbulence is almost certainly ahead.
The Dish 