It was just a bit of fun. The Tories set up a rather peculiar system to select their London mayoral candidate which allowed all registered voters in the capital to have a say from a shortlist of four.
Then it occurred to me that we should invite all the Conservative hopefuls – Andrew Boff, Victoria Borwick, Warwick Lightfoot and, yes, Boris Johnson – to set out their stalls on newstatesman.com.
Alas Boris was away on a factfinding trip to the US where I understand he was learning about taking it easy. What were we to do? Scrap the whole idea until the Henley member’s return?
No, I thought, push on and inform a grateful public of this opportunity to have a say in who could go head-to-head in the race against Ken Livingstone, Sian Berry etc. in next year’s vote.
Well a couple of media organisations picked up on this and there seemed to be a suggestion that there was a left-wing plot to stop Boris before his wheels had even touched the ground, so to speak.
You can read the BBC News website account by clicking here.
Now I’m not a big one for conspiracy theories, believing that the world just isn’t that well organised, so I was amused to be accused of being part of something so cloak and dagger. For the record, I’m not!
Having said that I confess I’m not keen on the idea of Boris being mayor of London if for no other reason than he seems always to be light on preparation.
Read this quote from his father Stanley’s website to see what I mean: “Over the years I have learnt not to be surprised by Boris. As a parent, I remember attending a performance of Richard II in the Cloisters at Eton where Boris was playing the title role. It was fairly obvious that he hadn’t learnt the part, but he winged it splendidly, inventing on the hoof a sequence of nearly perfect Shakespearian pentameters.”
The thing is you could argue this tendency to wing it and a propensity for dropping bricks makes Boris the person to back in the mayoral primary if you don’t want a Tory victory.
Equally you could argue he should be made to fall at the first hurdle.
Anyway draw your own conclusion. Either way I hope people do take part. As I told the BBC I love voting and, even if this one costs £1.50, I think it well worth registering and having a say. Here’s the number again: 0906 5555050
By the way we also did a bit of a ring around of London Lib Dem and Labour MPs – not that you can track many down in August – to find out who they plan to endorse in the Tory primary and you can read their thoughts here.
Moving on, I was lolling about in my revolving office chair the other day pondering the signature tune that preceded each episode of the Wombles. If you recall it begins: “Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we…”
Now I always took this as a sort of declaration: ‘Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we!’ – i.e. working class and proud. I realise now that this was a mistake which perhaps gives a rather an unfortunate insight into my eight-year-old mind. Anyway then came the spat about Lexus Dave Cameron and his gaggle of Old Etonian sidekicks and I thought why not look at what we think about poshness/class in 21st century Britain.
So in the coming month we’ve got a number of people to write about this very issue.
Clarissa Dickson-Wright kicks off the series with a typically robust and funny article reclaiming the word ‘toff’. Have a read by clicking here.
I was watching some TV the other night and caught a few minutes of Brothers and Sisters. Talk about being hit around the head with a hammer.
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