Boris shows his hand
Well well well. . When I urged bloggers to draft Boris little did I believe that it would actually happen.
David Cameron must be wondering whether to cheer or cry. He wanted a high-profile, high-octane, fun-packed challenge to Ken but you can have too much of a good thing. If Boris is selected by his party - remember that he does have to win a primary before he becomes the Tory candidate - that high-profile, high-octane, fun-packed challenge would compete daily with anything Team Cameron puts out to promote their man.
Ever since Boris floated the idea - and it was his idea - senior Tories have mused on whether to encourage or discourage him. Will it, they pondered, assist efforts to convince voters that the Tories are a serious alternative government or reinforce Gordon Brown's campaign to convince people that they are out of touch and anything but serious? Having established an open system they could neither pick him nor stop him.
I'm 
Comments
Mayor of London is a serious job with a not insignificant budget and power over people's daily commutes.
People may like Boris on a TV show or in the Commons where he can make them laugh but would you put him in charge of your local infrastructure and council tax?
Boris has always cultivated this eccentric image but surely Government for London requires a politician with experience and frankly appearing on quiz shows hardly qualifies him.
Was he pushed or did he jump
Despite by previous misgivings - go Boris go.
Ken won't mind having some free assistance from the blue corner.
Boris's credibility isn't damaged by his own flamboyance - it's damaged by the fact that he's Tory.
And let's face it - there is nothing more ridiculous than being a Tory.
Isn't that right Nick?
London Palladium perhaps.
London mayor - not really.
Hurrah! Whether you love Boris or loathe him, you have to admit that he does a better job than any other politician alive of putting the fun back into politics.
Despite being an ardent detester of the tories and everything they stand for, I might even vote for him, just because it would make such a splendid change to have an honest politician.
Boris has always cultivated this eccentric image but surely Government for London requires a politician with experience and frankly appearing on quiz shows hardly qualifies him.
Was he pushed or did he jump
Boris Johnson may have a brain the size of a planet but frankly will not be up to the job of challenging Ken Livingstone. Sadly, if he gets nominated I am convinced the Tories do not want it.
What the people want, they will have - bring forward Boris. We all know that Ken isn't the ideas man anyway.
Well, Hartlepool elected a monkey, remember...
Good luck, Boris. I would rather vote for anyone than Livingstone, who costs a fortune, and increases the amount each year through the charge on my council tax, and then uses it to spend on his personal prejudices rather than the things that really matter to Londoners. The lack of any serious alternative candidate has kept him in office for far too long. Boris is just the sort of candidate who could push him out, getting previous apathetic voters to the polling booth. What is even better, I think despite all the comments about his comedy talents, that he would be rather good at the job, and a sight more even-handed than Red Ken. Quite what Ken could do once he is out of office is another story. Imagine having to pay for his own taxi fare!
Oh please... I do not want a clown running the city I live in. Even Clarkson would have been a better choice than this.
Excellent news for the Conservatives, best of luck Boris!!
Boris - Carpe Londinium.
Adam wrote:
"...it would make such a splendid change to have an honest politician."
Giulio replies:
Tell that to his wife.
Such minor quibbles apart though, this is probably the most important day for British politics since a man in a monkey suit ran for mayor of Hartlepool.
Is this all that Cameron has to offer ex Tories living in London?
THE JOKER IN THE PACK? Nick, I say to them, GET REAL!
Yet again, we have proof that the problem is Cameron!
I do not like Ken, but running London is not a cat-walk!
I think Boris could be a good Mayor of London.After all Dick Whittington only had a cat to help him along,whereas Boris will have a good team to promote his cause.
It will also be much more fun with Boris
Ed Corbett
The Tories are already gearing up to cover vthis one. I contacted them through their new website campaign about my local Tory district council, who once elected in places other than this town, grab the committee places and dump on us in this town. For all Dave's posturing about "listening to local people", this lot clearly do not. Their cresponse: It's a local election, so we don't interfere.
So there you have it, London, vote him in on Dave's manifesto, but if he doesn't listen to you, it was your fault all along for electing him, especially if you actually voted for someone else.
Do I detect a hint of self-regarding smugness Nick?
What I would like to know is why the 91Èȱ¬ among others insist on calling him "Gaff prone" as if that weasel Livingstone weren't the most offensive creature in politics, excluding George Galloway.
Boris is just a humorous sideshow. Livingstone on the other hand is bordering on treason.
Just reading further down the blog. Why the fixation with Boris?
Haven't you got some politics to catch up on?
I have watched the 91Èȱ¬ coverage of this item and it is obvious that the 91Èȱ¬ are doing their best to rubbish Boris! It is not their job to do this but to report the facts even handedly and not do the job for that clown Livingstone who spends our money as he sees fit, just as he did when he was in charge of the GLC. I await with great interest to see the way the 91Èȱ¬ continue this coverage!!
Nick, is it your job to encourage the candidature of Boris - or anyone else - for public office ? I thought the 91Èȱ¬ was supposed to be politically unbiased ?
Your motivation, according to your original blog, was to "cheer up every political journalist in the country".
Nick, this really does you no credit. It is a trivialisation of politics. Such an approach may be acceptable for a tabloid journalist, but not for the 91Èȱ¬'s Political Editor.
I think Boris's image is not actually that representative of his actual thinking and ability.
Having just read "have I got views for you", I was surprised by the depth to this man, and actually think he's exactly what this country needs.
A plain rejection of PC nonsense, a return to British common sense and the end of the majority pandering to the minority.
Bring it on Boris!
Nick,
How about something on the Lib-Dem race for the Mayorality?
We know, roughly, who the Tory contenders are, all about Ken, but nothing about the Lib Dems eyeing the job.
Could Boris do worse than the current incumbent? He has proved himself adept at spending Londoners' money, often to no tangibly beneficial effect but marvellous for his own self-aggrandisment. I don't see Boris toadying up to leaders of other nations or interfering in matters which do not concern the governance of London.
Seems to me that most of the 'unsuitable' criticism levelled at Boris was previously levelled at Ken; and wasn't he on Have I Got News For You?
I say go for it. Having never lived in London, all I can see of Ken is his constant, often either offensive or disgusting, comments on world events.
What does Hugo Chavez have to do with running London?
Why, whenever I visit London, are there a plethora of references to the Mayor everywhere?
This is a man who, to the wider non-London based world, is a joke for all the wrong reasons.
Boris is often the subject of a lighthearted laugh. Ken is just a joke.
Londoners - Tory or otherwise - would be suicidal to look this acutely intelligent gift horse in the mouth
If Boris is also a celebrity ? Hooray ! At Last ! A celebrity worth celebrating
The very idea of Mr Johnson even existing , let alone becoming Mayor of London , is a welcome miracle our time
At a sporting event on Sunday , a casual poll of potential voters inspired " there IS a God after all " gleeful smiles from everyone ;
not a single reservation
( Yah boo to Mr Crick's Rigsbyesque smutty sensationalism on Newtnight )
One -sober, heterosexual- gentleman polled declared :
" I love that man - why can't he run the whole country ? "
As anyone walking or bicycling in central London would attest , it is
painfully obvious that Mr Livingstone - a.k.a. The Boy Bendybus - has neither empathy nor respect for his fellow citizens
Bendybuses are inhuman . Moreover , the congestion charge seems little more than a tax to fund the mass observation of our post-war social engineering fiasco ; alongside the fall-out from our near fetishistic goading of foreigners
Any progressive Mayor addressing the issue of climate change properly would at least have already - ahem - ' incentivised ' all our tax funded employees , with the exception of the emergency services, to sail around town on peddle cycles
And without a doubt simply banned the useage of all domestic 4x4s from anywhere within the M25 ( show me the mud )
Let's hear it for Boris !
Well, if Boris were mayor, you could be pretty sure he wouldn't be allowing a third party real time access to the data from the congestion charging system.
He contributed to the recently released film "Taking Liberties", having no compunction about featuring alongside Tony Benn. It would do Londoners no harm to have their privacy and liberties championed.
Boris will make a fine Mayor of London; he is witty, knowledgeable and makes people happy.
I fully expect him to be elected; oh, how London needs him.
Begone Dull Ken.
It speaks volumes for the Conservative Party that they can not challenge Ken Livingstone with serious politics, they have to do it throught the cult of personality.
It amazes me that the British public has not seen through Johnson's facade. He is my Member of Parliament, but rarely says anything in the House; never replies to correspondence; and only bought a house locally once elected - spending most of his life in London or being paid to do trivial things such as test cars for magazines. Of course he has an intellect but he also knows which side his bread is buttered. I loathe everything Livingstone stands for and has done to London but to elect Johnson would be laughable. The only good outcome may be that we get a decent, local MP in Henley who actually cares about his constituents not his image..this after Heseltine and Johnson..
The position of London Mayor was made for Boris. Boris is the personification of London whereas Ken is much more Hull or Liverpool.
Great person for Mayor, I just hope that his private life doesn't explode in has face. Not having to listen to the nasal whine would make all our lives better.
Go Boris go!
He is bright, intelligent with a sense of fun.He will be great for London. Makes a change from the miserable grey place created by Livingstone. Maybe an end to broken promises too...what about the promise when the Congestion charge was introduced that the cost would not increase? What about the "consultation" over the extention of the charge zone...!
What about the ever increasing cost to London taxpayers to support Livingstone's personal ambitions
aye well, that's the next one in the bag for ken - thank god.
the tories must have lost their marbles
The only reason that Ken Livingstone is mayor of London is that the people who voted for him are blindly, ideolocally, dyed-in-the-wool Labourites who would vote for anyone [or anything] as long he/she/it is the Labour candidate. It can't be because he's pleasant/works hard to make London a better place/makes Londoners feel more important than HE is, because he's none of the above. Worst of all, he's joyless and doesn't make people proud to be Londoners - doesn't even try to! It can be great to live in London but it's tough too, Boris would bring a sense of joyfulness and the feeling that it's the people of London that matter most to the office of Mayor. Vote for Boris, it'd be like emerging from a dark and dismal era
Boris Johnson is more than just a popular public figure and quiz show host. He is extraordinarily well educated and his experience in politics perhaps stretches beyond just being an MP with his background in journalism demonstrating his keen interest and understanding of modern politics.
I think Londoners could do a lot worse than to have Boris as their Mayor.
The best anyone can say of Boris appears to be that he is 'fun'.
Not sure that this ought to be a criteria for being mayor of a major international city.
The guy is a farce - is this what serious opposition to Labour looks like?
Boris Johnson is a clown and if he stands against Ken Livingstone he will get shredded. It's all very well being the court jester at Westminster but being the major of London requires aptitude and dedication and the only time Johnson showed any signs of these two qualities was when he was shagging Petronella Wyatt. As a reluctant Tory candidate who seemed hesitant and less than enthusiastic about his candidacy it reflects the dearth of real talent in the party. I think Ken, who does a great job in the capital city, will sleep very easily!
Can't see Mayor Boris walking behind a "Today we are all Hezbullah" banner. or going overboard to please the politically correct mandarins of the neo-left
There is a difference between a clown and a joker.
The Tory party should show more respect for the dignity and credibility of London.
One of Boris's massive clangers at a London meeting of international personalities could do a lot of damage.