Boris says awesome things...

Good gravy – Boriswatch goes on holiday to Spain for a week, and its tin hats all round. It seems that Boris-Johnson.com has been an innocent victim of an intriguing internet web of intrigue. A legal action by Alisher Usmanov (a portly and frankly scary-looking Russian businessman – don’t sue me, Alisher – who has recently bought a large stake in Arsenal Football Club) against another political blogger Craig Murray has meant that Murray’s site had to be pulled down – and with it all sites hosted on the same servers at Fasthosts hosting company, regardless of their connection to the fallout. Boris-Johnson.com, Bloggerheads.com and BobPiper.co.uk have all been affected too, along with a few other blogs.
This, as far as Boriswatch is concerned, is a very dangerous precedent. By going after the hosting company instead of Murray gives the impression that the accusations can’t be proved wrong – so they’re just gagging the only guy brave enough to put them out. Craig has always been controversial on his site – and you’d imagine if he wasn’t certain of his facts he wouldn’t put them out. And is seems that taking out the servers where Boris’s site resides is shooting themselves in the foot – now everyone knows about it!
Boriswatch believes in the freedom of speech. To save spending time with aggressive lawyers, instead of cut-and-pasting the content we’ll just link to the always brave Indymedia:
Craig Murray censored for attacking Alisher Usmanov – full text
Now, if we could find a handy link between Usmanov and Ken Livingstone, that would be *awesome*…
UPDATE: Atlantic Free Press has a great collection of links on this. And here’s a video of Newsnight’s coverage:

Boris has given his first TV interview (albeit an internet one) on the London Mayor race to internet TV station 18 Doughty Street. In it, he defends his past gaffes – “I reserve the right to make gaffes, I really do. I think it is a key thing in politics that people should be able to say what they think and to, er, get themselves into slight trouble from time to time.” Damn right. Also, he digs in on the recent Compass/Ken debacle, putting it better than Boriswatch ever could: “It is a mystery to me why Ken is endlessly diverting his press officers into poring over my articles over the last twenty years in the hope of finding something he can flam up into a story. You should leave your challenger alone is the golden rule of politics, I thought. It’s a mystery… I think they are trying to wind me up. I think someone is trying to wind me up out there. I take it in good part. I think it’s highly flattering that he is obviously so rattled that it is necessary to do this. I don’t think it is going to work but I wish him luck with his current strategy.”

It goes out on 18 Doughty Street at 9pm tonight – and you can watch it online here.

The Liberal Democrats have announced their shortlist of candidates for the Mayoral elections. Brian Paddick is the stand-out contender, being fairly well known and probably the only one that can compete with the personalities of Ken and Boris. However, are they destined to be a sideline in the Ken and Boris show?

“Storm” may be a little overdoing it, I suppose – but there’s no doubt that Boris-based news has multiplied in the last few weeks. Here’s a brief Boriswatch overview of the key points:
- A thoroughly interesting post on worldtv.com highlights the recent “bribe” of cheap transport for Londoners and Ken’s links to Hugo Chavez, oil magnate and all-round shady guy. Boriswatch is enlightened.
- Brian Paddick has entered the race for London Mayor for the Liberal Democrats. For Boris supporters, that can only be a good thing – as he’s a relatively well-known figure thanks to his pants episode and being openly gay, it may split Ken Livingstone’s vote, leaving Boris relatively unscathed.
- Indeed, Boris hits back at the Compass onslaught in the Pink News, of all places. Perhaps to stave off any possible threat from Paddick…
- Meanwhile, it seems that even Boris’s opponents are worried about the Compass fallout. Bloggers4Labour note that the “negatives” that Compass list about Boris may even entice voters to him…
- Even German and French reporters are excited by the prospect of Mayor Boris, as reported in Süddeutsche Zeitung.
- The Independent’s James Daley hails the prospect of Mayor Boris with his cycling credentials – although notes that whoever wins it’ll be good for the continually building cycling infrastructure in London.
- The Guardian reports that, despite its best efforts with Doreen and Compass, Boris is the runaway favourite to be the Tory candidate for London Mayor, with a whopping 70% of the vote!
- Still, not everyone’s enamoured. Taking an interesting angle, one blogger asks, “Who is worse – Ken of Boris“, highlighting many of the things Compass have taken out of context. “Out of Compass, Out of Context”! That should be their slogan…
- Despite the growing mayoral pressures, Boris isn’t neglecting his other duties. He was spotted sans bike on a Memory Walk to raise money for Alzheimers sufferers.
- He also, bizarrely, was at the launch of a rocket in Scotland. Who knew.

An excellent article giving a glimpse of dark forces of spin within the Compass group: How Boris quotes were spun, by Andrew Gilligan.

This article first appeared on ConservativeHome.

If you’d been a celebrated journalist, a successful editor, a popular television personality and a well-received MP, you could be forgiven for resting on the hard-won spoils of your success. After all, you’ve earned enough to never work again, you’ve got legions of supporters – let’s kick back and enjoy the show, you’d think.

But resting is not in the vocabulary of Boris Johnson. Having put himself up for the position of Mayor of London, he’s waded into a whole heap of unmentionables flung in his direction, not least in the last couple of weeks. From racism to buffoonery, he’s had most of the riot act read to him by the opposition – and unusually, he’s kept quiet. So let’s delve into the crux of the Boris bashing.
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