The Aged P

At the weekend I joined up with over fifty UKIP members who popped into Rochester to do a leaflet drop for Mark Reckless who resigned as the local MP a few days ago because he had left the Tory Party and joined UKIP. Being a man of honour he felt he needed to seek the permission of Rochester’s voters  to either endorse or reject him under his new colours so he has provoked a by-election. He didn’t have to do so – over the last few years several MPs have crossed the floor to other parties and refused to budge from Westminster.

Not so Mr Reckless – and it’s a brave move. Rochester has been fairly low down on the UKIP target list so it will be a tough fight (though early signs are promising for UKIP). Furthermore both David Cameron and Boris Johnson (perhaps regressing to their Bullingdon Club coarseness) went quite public with disparaging remarks more suited to midnight at a freshers ball than the halls of political discourse.

I came across a local gentleman who appeared to stand foursquare behind Cameron on this matter. He returned our leaflet accusing Mr Reckless of being a “traitor” to the Conservative Party. I pointed out that, since he was submitting himself to the will of the electors of Rochester there could be no accusation of treason since, in a democracy, there exists a loyalty that must always overide any party subscription – loyalty to one’s own fellow citizens.

That is why I went down to Rochester  – to support a brave and honest politician….a rare breed in our current political climate, I fear.

Much talk this week about London Mayor Boris Johnson’s impact on the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham and speculation about a possible tilt at the leadership some time in the future.

Prime Minister David Cameron is playing a dual game on this. “Friends” are saying that Cameron is extremely “relaxed” about Boris while other political and media surrogates are peddling the line of Boris being great for a laugh but being essentially a “buffoon” no real substance.

Looking at our current collection of so called political “leaders” at present – Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, Milliband, Balls – one might be tempted to paraphrase George II’s alleged remark about General James Wolfe…

“Buffoon is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other politicians”…….

Quentin Letts at the Daily Mail has obviously been asked to take London Mayor Boris Johnson down a peg or two in the light of the Olympic/Paralympic Borisfest.

Quentin has decided, therefore, to suggest that Boris is OK for a little light relief but would be no good in those situations where tough choices have to be made or brows need to be furrowed. So, in his piece on Cameron’s speech to the House on the findings of the Hillsborough Report he finished off with a dig at Boris.

Some people are currently bigging up the Mayor’s prospects. They should get real. This overdue, moving speech was one that Boris Johnson could never have given.

Mr Letts also reminded us that Boris needed to apologise as well

He once insulted Liverpool and his name was mentioned a couple of times towards the end of yesterday’s session. Should he once more apologise to Liverpool?

Actually he apologised at the time and he did so again today. But that is not the point. There is obviously a measure of irritation around Cameron’s circle about the mayor’s popularity and Quentin has probably been persuaded to spread a little poison.

Did the crowd’s reaction to Boris at the final parade of the Olympians annoy the Cameron cabal? Of course it did. But what always sticks in the throat of the Cameroons is something much more hurtful to the soul……Boris has gone before the electorate of London twice over the last five years and each time has won a mandate to govern. Cameron failed to do that in 2010 and as a result is stuck in a coalition with Clegg and Cable…

Oh dear, Dave – that must hurt….time for someone to ring Quentin again…

From Stephan Shakespeare an excellent postscript to Boris Johnson’s re-election as Mayor of London in a city that is natural Labour territory at a time when everywhere else the Tories were getting a drubbing.

You don’t win London by luck. And you don’t win London, at the very moment when 50% of its electorate are saying they would vote Labour at the next general election, just because you are likeable and funny. Look at the polling: the majority credit him not just with charisma, but with doing a good job – even a significant fraction of Labour voters approved of how he handled his first term as Mayor.

That is the key fact about Boris. Beneath the golly gosh public schoolboy upper class twit image is an incredibly shrewd political brain. What is more his four years as mayor has now shown that he is also a savvy and efficient administrator. Interestingly enough many working class Londoners recognised this aspect of Boris and broke with their tribal loyalty to Labour in sufficient numbers to vote for his return to City Hall. It seems that they have latched onto something that has bypassed most of the commentariat.

Boris is competent. He is charismatic, likeable and competent. He is quite separate from the Conservative Party machine and competent. He is low tax, anti EU tough on crime and competent.

Boris is one of the few politicians of any party who combines brains with charm and humour. They are three very useful skills to have when running for anything. I am not sure whether Boris will be a future Prime Minister, but one thing will be sure, if he does decide to go for it, nobody will say to him he hasn’t had any experience of running anything… unlike Messrs Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, Milliband Mi and Balls.

If I were David Cameron I would be feeling rather nervous about Boris – and if I were George Osborne I would be giving up any hope of becoming leader because the one word you cannot now associate with those two is COMPETENCE.

For the moment, at least, Boris is the only Tory game in town…..