Boris Johnson's Blog, page 42

Fred Goodwin and the Occupy crowd should take up Scouting

At the risk of sounding like a character from Enid Blyton, there is absolutely nothing to beat camping. I love the exultation you get when you rise from your groundmat and all the aches melt away from your body as you realise the night is over at las...

Isn't it just as likely that Britain will hit the rocks and break up?

Imagine popular rage, therefore, when it was discovered that he escaped aboard lifeboat No 1 with the women and children — and it was whispered that he and his wife had even bribed the crew not to rescue victims in the water, in case the boat should...

Maggie's magic came from her contempt for complacent men

But if the film takes liberties, it is poetically truthful. It is true to the essence of Thatcher, and above all Meryl Streep is amazing. She enters into her; she becomes her: the ruby lips, the flashing eyes, the pineapple hair, the pale skin transpi...

Join me in Dr Johnson's New Year Diet – it's a piece of cake

Now a psychiatrist might look at these symptoms and conclude that the British are somehow needy. We seem to want some kind of comfort. We are evidently anxious. After all, you drink when you need to drown your sorrows or in some other way deal with re...

Olympic lessons from when we really were running on empty

So we lurch liverishly towards our Olympic Year. Gloomily we ponder the global economy, and now — just as we are wondering how we can afford it all — is exactly the moment to look at the astonishing achievements of this country. Let us peer back ...

EU crisis: The Frogs do love us – they're just hopping mad with Germany

"This is quite unacceptable," the Liberal Democrat leader is supposed to have fumed at the French government.
I don't know if the French have been chastened by this rebuke, but I think we should urge Nick to relax. Look at the polls. Anyone woul...

We're right about the euro – that's why Europe is angry

I know some people are unsettled to see all these powerful Europeans getting so very, very cross. Angela Merkel has said that we weren't even negotiating properly. Nicolas Sarkozy can hardly bring himself to mention Britain by name and has been fil...

The gospel of Clarkson puts bread on the tables of Britain

I was standing beneath my car the other day, and as I looked up I felt awe and pride. As I inspected its miraculously unrusted underbelly, I asked myself once again why people are so darned rude. This is a machine that has done about 120,000 miles. I...

A day off school, but the lesson on pensions hasn't been learnt

Never mind the elf and safety. As far as I am concerned anyone should be able to bring the kids to work on Wednesday. Suffer the little children to come unto the office, I say – and that includes City Hall. Let them play with the photocopiers. Let ...

Boris Johnson: prize for Thames Estuary airport is immense

At the launch of a report on Britain's airport capacity, the Mayor of London warned that Britain faces a period of economic stagnation unless a new international airport is built in south-east England.


The Government has ruled out expansion of Lond...