Boris says awesome things...

Precisely five years prior to the day of this years London Mayoral elections the Daily Telegraph published this column, a report by Boris, from Iraq, in which he reported liberating Tariq Aziz’s old cigar case from the burnt out shell of his palace.

Now it appears someone has lodged a formal complaint to the Metropolitan Police accusing Bozza of nicking ‘Iraqi cultural property’.

Who would want to do such a thing? Will it affect the five per cent lead Boris has opened up over Ken in the latest polls?

LondonUnlocked have produced a great regularly-updated article on the policies of each London Mayor candidate. It’ll help make up your mind – not that you needed to, of course.

Click here for the page – and it’s also linked on the sidebar under “Mayor Quick Links” for easy access.

The Guardian has produced a couple of brief videos following each Mayoral candidate around London. Here’s Boris’s:

Video: Boris Johnson on the campaign trail.

And in the interests of fairness (although of course Ken’s nowhere near as good):

Video: Ken Livingstone eyes up a third term in office

Boris gave a speech for lobby journalists on Thursday, and by most accounts the journalistic bunch were impressed. Michael White, assistant editor of the Guardian, liked Boris’s beef in this article, noting the lack of jokes and mentioning applause that broke out for some of his policies. Of course, one man’s bread is another (wo)man’s dough, but there are signs that, if Boris turns off the jokey exterior occasionally, people are surprised by the coherence underneath.

“There’s going to be a massive stamping down on the bumbling. Much less bumbling.”
Boris Johnson, TIME Magazine, 2008
As the Mayor deadline approaches, people are asking whether Boris can shake off his “clownish” image and prove a serious candidate for Mayor. We have seen no humorous antics in the last few months, and Boris has got serious on a number of crucial topics – public transport and financing to name two. Here’s an excellent article from the esteemed TIME magazine on the topic: The Crown Prince. What do you think – can Boris shake off the bumbling?

UPDATE: And here’s another article from this side of the pond: Nouse – Who’s Laughing.

We have few idle moments here at Boriswatch Towers. But we’ve managed to string a few of those idle moments together to produce a wonderful little ditty in favour of the Big Bozza! Here, Ladies and gentlefolk, is the world premiere of “Boris For Mayor” – The Song! Watch out for the guest pigeon…

UPDATE: Well, this IS going well. It’s in the top 50 most downloaded political videos on Youtube this week, and it’s been picked up by Sky’s Adam Boulton, ConservativeHome and BackBoris! Here’s some websites linking to the song:

ConservativeHome: Boris For Mayor – the unofficial theme tune

Sky’s Adam Boulton: Name That Tune

BackBoris Newsletter: February 22nd 2008

Times CommentCentral: With a Video Like This, How Can Boris Lose?

Rumour has it that Neil Kinnock was none too impressed when he saw his head superimposed in a lightbulb the front page of the nations’ favourite tabloid on a certain Thursday morning in 1992. For any Boriswatchers too young to remember the fateful Friday morning that followed, many an expletive echoed around the breakfast tables of Britain, as a somewhat surprised nation woke up to a fourth tory term.

Whilst London soaked up some surprise February hot weather this morning, the Sun served up this spendid little spread on Bozza’s initiative to sort out injured servicemen with free travel entitlements. Not only a fantastic way of saying “thank you”, perhaps a useful pointer that a certain red-top won’t be supporting a certain red-Ken?

The (rather longwinded by The Sun’s standards but also rather to the point) headline that riled Kinnock was “If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights?” Can any Boriswatchers suggest a suitable headline for May 1st? Are there any photoshoppers can rival the infamous lightbulb illustration? We’d love to hear from you, in the comments below or by email – get scribbling!

Policing and paperwork, teenage tearaways on transport, bicycles, balkanisation and bureaucracy. Boris reveals all to Andrew Marr – report and video here.

Sifting through today’s tedious tittle-tattle Boriswatch has uncovered this little gem of a speech on the ‘backboris’ campaign website.

We appreciate that many Boriswatchers may be experiencing withdrawl at this difficult time, reeling the revelation that our favourite weekly comment column is to continue no longer. It doesn’t have to be this way folks. With the dark days of January abstinence behind us why not reach for those fags, uncork a bottle of plonk, indulge in some fatty nibbles this Friday evening and wallow in some welcome wise words from the Mayor in waiting!

The Telegraph invites everyone to Make a Boris Johnson fingerpuppet – which seems a thoroughly sensible idea.