There is universal agreement that the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were the best ever, brilliantly organised, flawlessly presented with the stadium packed to the max every day (By the way, Mitt Romney, we are still waiting for that apology…) As a result London Mayor Boris Johnson has probably become one of the most popular figures in Britain – and considering he is a politician that is an astonishing feat – most of us Brits place politicians lower in our scale of trust and approval than estate agents, car salesmen or even journalists…..

Boris is a Tory but his appeal crosses the lines of party, class, gender and race. Last May when the Conservative Party vote was collapsing in the local elections he was re-elected as Mayor of London in a city that is traditionally left wing even though his core beliefs are those of the Thatcherite wing of his party – euro sceptic, smaller government, robust on crime, pro business etc

That’s partly because those values, though despised by by the Guardianista detachment of the middle classes cosily ensconced in the fashionable quarters of North London, happen to resonate with a substantial element of working class voters in the poorer boroughs. But it’s also because Boris, out of the box eccentric that he is, can connect with ordinary folk better than any other politician in the UK. His delivery, his vocabulary, his sense of humour break every rule of political speaking – just like Sarah Palin in the USA. Yet the two of them, although their styles are different, manage to achieve something golden – an electrical charge with their audience that creates a shared experience no other politician can hope to emulate.

They also share another special quality – the ability to use a folksy golly gosh manner to camouflage a shrewd and savvy political brain that is always five moves ahead of anyone else…

Just watch the reactions of the crowd before him and the athletes behind – this man CONNECTS…no wonder PM David Cameron looked a little nervous beside Boris – he could be watching the emergence of a future party leadership rival…