Boris on Target

Boris at his Best

As reported elsewhere the Evening Standard on Friday published an excellent analysis of the Compass Group's pretty pathetic attempt to smear Boris Johnson, by selectively quoting him in such a way that in many cases the meaning was completely reversed.

If you don't have time to read the whole thing, Dizzy has a very good precis of the key points. The way some of the appallingly selective quotes in the report were used would bring a blush to the face of a poster designer for a soon-to-be West End flop, as they cut and pasted the single good word from yet another critic's carpeting of the production.

A good idea of why the Labour party machine is so rattled by Boris' candidacy can be found in an excellent recent opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph. It shows all the wit and intelligence that the bumbling exterior so often hides, and deals with a very serious issue in a sensitive way despite the engaging way he puts over his points.

Moreover I think it shows an understanding of the concerns of many in society, from all parts of the political spectrum, about how our society is developing. His analysis is both common sense to the common man, and also a complete anathema to heavy handed statists like Mayor Livingston.

Talking of the kind of small scale crime that leads ultimately to the kind of world in which the tragic incidents highlighted in a couple of recent posts occur, Mr Johnson has this to say:

Yes, we need more policemen on the beat, and not filling out forms, and yes, we need to make sure that these thugs are properly punished. But we can flood the streets with police and fill our jails to American levels without addressing the fundamental issue: that children have lost respect for adults, and they know that adults will take no steps to win it back.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

He is almost certainly right, but moreover it is clear from the article that he understands the complexity of the problems.

It could be argued that he fails to put forward much in the way of concrete steps forward to address the challenges we face. To accept though, as I think most people do now, that the problems exist, to understand that they may not have some of the simplistic roots and solutions that some like to believe, and to have a grasp of the extent of the scale of the challenge is a vast improvement of the simplistic utterances of most politicians.