Boris Johnson's move shows he doesn't really believe the Tories can win in 2015.

So much for the incessant stratagems of Lynton Crosby, the Australian wonder-worker of the polls who sometimes seems to be personally directing the whole government. So much for the allegedly New Iron Lady (alternatively The British Angela Merkel) Mrs Theresa May, flailing wildly to conceal the fact that she can and will do nothing about mass immigration or crime.

 

So much for the ‘Kill Mill’ plan to destroy Ed Miliband by incessant personal abuse.  So much for the supposed vote-winning powers of the new Tory Youth Movement  (‘Ambition Above All’ is their watchword, and ‘What do you mean, conservative?’ their question) , fanning out to marginal constituencies by the busload to replace decrepit and/or mutinous actual Tory members in the fight for votes.

 

 

Mr Alexander ‘Boris’ Johnson  (‘Boris’ is his stage name, his family call him ‘Al’) has plainly concluded that the Tories cannot and will not win the general election in May, or even do well in it. 

 

He will of course not say so. But how could he?

 

This is why he has advertised himself as a candidate in the fast-approaching general election, in an announcement only one step short of actually standing in the middle of London with a sandwich board round his neck saying ‘Safe Seat Wanted’ .

 

If he thought the Tories would win in May, he would not risk the slight whiff of gamesmanship  which must hang around a person who once pledged not to hold two political offices at once, and now says that this is exactly what he now desires and plans to do (his term as President of the People’s Republic of London will not end until 2016).

 

After all, what would be the hurry to get into Parliament and burden himslf with the school and parking problems of some suburb, if David Cameron was likely to sweep back into Downing Street with the first Tory majority since 1997 (always a raving fantasy) , or even if Mr Cameron was likely to hold on to the premiership thanks to being largest single party in a re-hung Parliament (a possibility which the opinion polls have been unambiguously ruling out now for some years, with iron consistency)? 

There wouldn’t be any hurry. He could keep his promise and stay as Mayor. Mr Johnson can get into Parliament pretty much when he wants to, given a few months’ notice.

 

The remaining Tories all swoon and grovel at the approach of 'Boris', laughing helplessly if he says so much as ‘Good Evening’, reduced to pitiful hysterics if he actually attempts a joke, their hero, their only star, the Great, the Stupendous, the Officially Funny….Boris!

 

No sitting member is safe from his approach. If 'Boris' wants a seat, then he can pretty much have it from these fans. And this will remain so until the day when Mr Johnson is actually tested in office, if he ever is, and turns out to be just like David Cameron, only more so.

 

The same thing happened to Mr cameron, too, of course. the poor old loyalists thought he was a secret Superconservative, dressed up as a sort of Clark Kent. He turned out not even to be Clark Kent, but to be David Cameron.

 

But there wouldn’t be any hurry for Mr Johnson to become an MP  in a Tory party restored to office. On the contrary. Mr Johnson, we may safely say, does not yearn to be a backbencher, or a junior minister, the best he could hope for if Mr Cameron were still in Downing Street in June 2015.

 

The House of Commons did not love him the last time he was there, nor he it.  He has higher things on his mind, and those things will only be available to those who are already MPs after the May general election.