Boris Johnson's Blog, page 22

Boris Johnson: I may become a romance writer

The Mayor joked that he will choose the name Rosie M Banks – the name of a recurring fictional character in books by P G Wodehouse.

Mr Johnson said: “In a trance, you will buy this blockbuster by Rosie M Banks and I hope to be somewhere quietly raking it in.”

Wodehouse’s Rosie M Banks is a romance novelist who his character Bertie Wooster describes as “the most pronounced and widely-read tripe on the market”.

Harry Potter author J K Rowling was last month unmasked as the writer of detective novel The Cuckoo’s Call by Robert Galbraith.

The Mayor also used his trip to Australia to give his strongest endorsement of Mr Cameron yet, saying that he will be the Prime Minister for a “very long time”.

Asked during a radio interview about his own leadership ambitions Mr Johnson said: “[David Cameron has] got to get on and be Prime Minister and he will go on and be that for, I think, a very long time.”

Mr Johnson added: “If you look at what’s happening I Britain, the offering from the Labour Party is pitifully thin. It’s not at all clear what Ed Miliband and his guys stand for and I think David Cameron’s set there for a long spell."

Mr Johnson is regarded by many Tories as the strongest contender to replace Mr Cameron.

However, some suspect the mayor of talking up a Tory election victory in order to increase the chances of the party removing Mr Cameron in the event of a hung parliament in 2015.

Boris Johnson says David Cameron will be PM for a ‘very long time’

The Mayor’s comments, made during a radio interview in Australia, come after he predicted that his brother Jo Johnson, the head of Mr Cameron’s Downing Street policy unit, will one day be the Prime Minister.

Mr Johnson added: “If you look at what’s happening I Britain, the offering from the Labour Party is pitifully thin. It’s not at all clear what Ed Miliband and his guys stand for and I think David Cameron’s set there for a long spell."

The Mayor is in Australia for a family holiday as well as an appearance at a writers’ festival.

In his interview Mr Johnson also criticised the response of the Left to the banking crisis.

“The Left…nowhere around the world, not in America, not in Britain and not in Europe, nowhere did the Left produce a new critique of the market economy that was really valid after the banking crisis,” he said.

“They never really came up with a new model. They moaned about banks and they moaned about rich people but they never really came up with a new solution, a new way forward. All we had was the Occupy movement with a few flapping tents everywhere and that didn’t really add up to much.”

Boris says he would never ‘shaft’ his brother like Ed Miliband did

There has been regular speculation about whether or not Boris Johnson has ambitions to take over the leadership of the Conservative Party from David Cameron.

Although overshadowed by his high-profile brother, Jo Johnson, a former journalist for the Financial Times who only entered Parliament in 2010, is regarded as a fast rising Conservative star.

Like Mr Cameron, he attended Eton College before Oxford University, where he was a member of the notorious Bullingdon club. He has previously been tipped as a future Prime Minister.

In his interview, Boris Johnson was asked whether he and his brother could have a similar political rivalry to Ed and David Miliband.

Since being defeated by his brother, David Miliband has regularly made his disappointment clear and has used articles and media appearances to snipe at the Labour leader.

He last month said that he would never be able to “erase” the memory of being beaten by his younger brother.

Asked whether he and his brother are “like” the Milibands, Boris Johnson said: “Absolutely not. We don't do things that way, that's a very left-wing thing ... only a socialist could do that to his brother, only a socialist could regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his own brother.

“I mean, unbelievable. Only lefties can think like that ... they see people as discrete agents devoid of ties to society or to each other, and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people.”

Elsewhere in his interview Boris Johnson said that immigration has been “the lifeblood of London” but added: “But if you want to live in London, there are certain things you've got to sign up for - gender equality, freedom of speech, religious freedom.”

He also described immigrants attempting to enter Australia by boat as having “a lot of balls”.

The Spanish must take their hands off Gibraltar’s throat

Hands off our Rock, that’s what I say. Perhaps it really is a coincidence – as the Foreign Office claims – that we have just sent a fleet of warships to Gibraltar. Maybe it’s just a fluke that HMS Illustrious is about to bristle into view on the southern coast of Spain, complete with thousands of Royal Marines and other elite commando units.

But I hope not. I hope that one way or another we will shortly prise Spanish hands off the throat of our colony, because what is now taking place is infamous. The Spanish authorities have decided, for no good reason, to revive the border checks and general harassment of the Franco epoch. They are causing delay and botheration and they are now threatening a tax on goods vehicles going to the Rock. That is illegal under EU law, and tantamount to a blockade. They must stop it all, and pronto.

I am conscious that there will be some readers who despair at this bug-eyed bugling, who think I am mad to stick up for Gibraltar. They will point out that the Treaty of Utrecht is now exactly 300 years old, and that this mildewed document is hardly a good guide to foreign policy today. Among other things, Utrecht says that Menorca is also British, and that we have a right to sell slaves to South America. Why, say the sceptics, should we care about a rocky relic of empire? Why are we allowing this colonial anachronism to poison our relations with Spain – a country that is not only a good friend and EU partner, but which for decades now has been a liberal democracy?

Well, I will tell you why, as someone who first queued to get into Gibraltar 30 years ago, in the bad old days when the Spanish were last doing their tricks at the border. I waited for hours in the sun at La Línea de la Concepción as the Guardia Civil portentously poffled around with our papers; and then finally we got in, the car overheating, and I remember my amazement and hilarity as we inched through the narrow streets. It really was different from Spain. There were not only newsagents with – you will not be surprised to learn – copies of The Daily Telegraph. There were authentically gloomy-looking pubs with British names and signs saying Watneys pale ale, and fish-and-chip shops and saucy postcards. The overall effect was a bit like Blackpool in the Seventies; and though the people were unquestionably a bit more Mediterranean-looking than you would expect in Blackpool, they were almost hysterical (and I remember quizzing them) in their protestations of Britishness.

It was true then, and it is true today. It is just as true of the Falkland Islanders, who have recently confirmed their overwhelming desire to be British; and though the Foreign Office might secretly wish it were otherwise, that desire to be British will exist in Gibraltar for the rest of our lifetimes and beyond. Of course, there are people like Peter Hain MP, who will try to persuade them to seek an alternative destiny, or who will try to cook up schemes for joint sovereignty. They will never agree. The last government came up with a plan to sell them down the straits, but Jack Straw at least had the decency to put it to a referendum. Of the 38,000 Gibraltarians, only 2 per cent were interested in even sharing sovereignty with Spain. There are 98 per cent of Gibraltarians who want to be British, and as long as that is the case it is our absolute duty to protect them and their right to go about their lawful business, in accordance with EU law, without hassle from their neighbour.

I don’t for one minute believe that this spat has been provoked by the Gibraltarians. Forget all this palaver about a few concrete blocks that have been dumped in the sea. That isn’t why the Spanish are going back to the Franco-style blockade. This isn’t a row about fish. I am afraid that this is a blatant diversionary tactic by Madrid, and though it would be ludicrous to compare the Rajoy government with the tyranny of General Galtieri and his invasion of the Falklands, the gambit is more or less the same.

Mr Rajoy not only has political problems caused by a corruption scandal, but another and more fundamental difficulty. When I queued for hours in La Línea, all those years ago, it was an unashamedly tacky sort of place. There were stalls selling “hamburgesias” and candyfloss, and an awful fair involving tiny ponies lashed to a carousel – their pizzles knotted (I kid you not) to stop them urinating – while colossal flamenco-dressed children sat astride their little bowed backs. But at least it was bright and bustling, and full of business of one kind or another.

Today the unemployment rate in La Línea is 36 per cent, while the overall unemployment rate in Spain is 26 per cent and shows no sign of coming down. Youth unemployment is still over 50 per cent, and the worst of it is that Spanish unit labour costs – the key index of productivity – are actually rising by comparison with Germany, not falling. The prospects of a whole generation of young Spaniards are being sacrificed on the altar of monetary union.

The euro is the crisis facing the Spanish government, not the right of the Gibraltarians to fish off their own Rock. The problem in Spain today isn’t the Treaty of Utrecht, it’s the Treaty of Maastricht, and it is a supreme irony that a process that was meant to bring harmony among European nations should actually be provoking this bizarre row between Britain and Spain. The real and long-term solution isn’t for some Anglo-Spanish condominium over Gibraltar; if anything, it is for Spain to bring back the peseta.

In the meantime Madrid should be in no doubt as to the strength of British determination. Remember what the Queen said in 1981, when Charles and Diana went on their honeymoon cruise to Gibraltar, on the royal yacht Britannia. The Spanish protested, and so she phoned King Juan Carlos. As she later confided to the Privy council, she told him: “It’s my yacht, my son, and my Rock.” That’s the spirit.

Conservatives attack Boris Johnson over election ‘glide path’

“Great swathes of the country remain hostile to the Conservatives,” he added, noting that there is still only one Tory MP in Scotland and that the Conservatives only hold 20 of the 124 urban seats in the north of England and the Midlands.

“The economic recovery is, of course, good political news for the Tories. But the party will not be on a glide path to a majority if it doesn’t make determined and consistent efforts to broaden its appeal to working people, ethnic minority voters, people living in towns, cities and their suburbs and voters living outside of the traditional Conservative heartland,” Mr Skelton said.

Mr Skelton’s views were privately echoed by Conservatives in Government, who were exasperated by the Mayor’s remarks.

One Tory source sarcastically described Mr Johnson’s comments as “as helpful as ever” and insisted that ministers will never make such bullish statements about the election and the economy.

“We absolutely cannot be seen as complacent or like we think victory is in the bag – our message has to be that the work continues and we are the only party who will see it through.”

Mayor of London announces Prince George ‘Boris tricycle’ gift

London Mayor Boris Johnson is having a tricycle made as a gift from the capital city for royal baby Prince George, the politician said today.


"We are sending Prince George a beautiful, bouncing blue tricycle to get him on a bike at the earliest pos...

Boris Johnson giving Prince George tricycle to ‘acculturate him to joys of cycling’

Asked if the tricycle is sponsored by Barclays he said: “It might well be. That was what I was told. Thank goodness. It’s not in my briefing. I wasn’t briefed on baby presents.

“My memory is and I’m glad it has been confirmed we are sending Prince George a beautiful, bouncing blue tricycle to get him on the bike at the earliest possible opportunity and to acculturate him to the joy of cycling.”

The Mayor added: “It will be beautiful whatever it is.”

The three main party leaders last week disclosed the gifts that they had sent to Prince George.

David Cameron and his wife sent the third in line to the throne a selection of books by the celebrated children's author Roald Dahl.

A typical 15-book box-set of classics by Roald Dahl includes favourites such as The Twits, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, and Boy. Its recommended retail price is £88.85 but it can be bought online for as little as £15.99.

The Prime Minister's gift to welcome the birth of the royal baby was disclosed after Nick Clegg, his Liberal Democrat deputy, said he has given an embroidered cot blanket made by Spanish nuns.

Ed Miliband, the opposition leader, has sent a three-year-old apple tree - a traditional gift for a first-born boy.

The tree currently has apples on it and it was grown at a London orchard project called BEST, or Brent Eleven Streets.

Even Gollum can’t spoil the day as cycling’s revolution rolls on

We rode in a spirit of happy and amateurish emulation (my friend the Norwich goblin was in a tiny minority) and as we streamed in a foaming Limpopo of helmets, we imagined that we were making a statement about cycling in Britain: that it is ready for the next leap forward.

British cyclists have now won the Tour de France twice in a row – a thing that seemed unimaginable in my childhood. British cyclists have stormed the world in two successive Olympics; and now we have just put on the biggest inaugural mass participation cycle event in history.

For all of us on that race yesterday, it felt like a dream come true: to cycle on the roads with a carefree confidence that is normally impossible. My eyes were opened to enormous support for cycling, since we could have filled the marathon with would-be entrants many times over. But above all it opened my eyes to the astonishing beauty of countryside that is only a few miles from London.

It’s called Surrey! I mean to say: Surrey! Forgive me, please, all you rural Surrey-dwellers, but hitherto the word has generally conjured up an image of handsome semi-detached houses, and stockbroker Tudor, and Joan Hunter Dunn and the pine-y smell of Betjemanesque suburbia. All I can say is that I now know that Surrey is also wild and heart-breakingly lovely.

There are honey-coloured churches nestling in valleys that look as though they have been more or less untouched since Norman times. As I have mentioned, there are surprisingly big hills – and at the top of those hills there are primeval views of unspoilt deciduous forests. There are cheering little pubs, and places selling cream teas, and as we toured this Elysium I asked myself: why don’t I know about this? After all, I have driven through Surrey zillions of times – and there is the problem. We drive so fast in our cars that we don’t appreciate the countryside; we aren’t capable of walking far enough to do it all justice. To enjoy Surrey as I just have you need to go at bicycle pace. How can we possibly hope to do that?

As the British cycling revolution gathers pace, I predict a growing gulf between city and countryside. In the big cities, we can make cycling safer. We can do all sorts of things with cycle lanes and road space, to give cyclists more confidence to venture into an environment where average traffic speeds – in London – are only 9.3mph. But on country roads it strikes me that we have a real problem. I don’t know about you, but I would be very reluctant to let my nearest and dearest cycle on those fast country lanes, with cars whipping up behind them, in a narrow space, at 50 or 60mph. And we can’t infuriate the motorists, as we did yesterday, by closing the road.

What to do? As I cycled along I elaborated a bucolic vision: of a gigantic Rooseveltian scheme to get tens of thousands of young people into work – building a beautiful rural filigree of cycle superhighways, and making use of the old Beeching railway lines. At a stroke, we would allow everyone to do what I did yesterday, and enjoy our amazing country in a completely different way.

Euphoric with such thoughts, I finally made it home, to find a furious text from an old friend. What, he raged, was this self-indulgent orgy of cycling? London was paralysed. He couldn’t get to lunch with friends. It was a disgrace, he said.

I know he speaks for many, and I apologise again for the inconvenience that we caused by temporarily reserving some roads and bridges for cyclists. But I could not help myself as I texted back. “On your bike”, I said.

Boris Johnson hurdled by freerunners

Boris Johnson joined Iain Duncan-Smith to herald the work of a youth project in the Waltham Forest area of London.


Both found themselves swapping the dizzy heights of politics for life as human hurdles, with freerunners vaulting over the heads of t...

Boris Johnson will not fight key London seat at 2015 election, it emerges

The dinner and subsequent photographs prompted concern amongst Mr Cameron’s team about a potential leadership bid from Mr Johnson or Mr Gove.

It is understood that that prompted Mr Gove to pass on details about Mr Johnson’s confirmation that he will not stand in Croydon South.

That was then interpreted as being a blanket commitment by Mr Johnson in a column in the Spectator magazine.

Both Mr Johnson and Mr Gove are considered as potential successors to Mr Cameron and the pair have formed a strong friendship in recent years.

Mr Gove is said to occasionally text Mr Johnson when he is stuck in traffic in London to jokingly complain about the state of the capital’s roads.

Mr Johnson has repeatedly said he intends to serve his full second term as Mayor of London.

Rumours have circulated in Westminster that the Mayor wants to return to Parliament in 2015 before taking over from Mr Cameron.

However, Mr Johnson has regularly said he will not attempt to become Prime Minister.

Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said: “The Mayor was elected last year to serve a second four-year term. That’s what he has said he would do and that’s what he is doing.

“What he is determined to do is to help return a Conservative government in 2015. The best way to do that is to continue to promote business and drive jobs and growth in London, something that helps the whole UK economy.”

A spokesman for Michael Gove said: “We don't comment on leadership stories.”