Boris says awesome things...

Carpe Noctum Ball

The Colony Club has been an iconic drinking den for the last 60 years - a historical place for artists, writers, musicians, actors and their acolytes. Sadly, its lease is about to expire and it has an uncertain future.

SaveTheColonyClub.com has the lowdown on the situation, and Boris has written and pledged his support for the club. “I write to you in support of the campaign to prevent the iconic Colony Room Club from possible closure,” the Big Bozza says. “The Colony is a unique and important place for the capital both in terms of cultural and architectural significance.”

The Colony Club is hosting a Carpe Noctum Ball on 9th December, and promises to be a bawdy and enjoyable experience. If you’re interested is going, here is the full information, including planned events and prices. Have fun if you go!

One of Boris’s main pledges when seeking election was to consider scrapping the Western Congestion Charge, a recent addition to the main Charge zone which mainly seemed to be hindering daily life in the new zone, while lining City Hall pockets.

Well, Boris has managed to scrap the whole Western zone, provoking a torrent of gratitude from the residents and businesses who were facing a heady mix of toll charges and credit crunching. The official Boris Johnson site, webby types report, has had the greatest number of supportive emails since th sacking of Ian Blair.

Things are looking good in Borisland!

A cathartic look back at Boris’s first 6 months has spread across the Evening Standard. Six months on - the Boris audit in the Mayor-friendly paper has many good things to mention on the Big Bozza, including a list of promises kept and ones that are coming. In the same paper, Boris’s old enemy Yasmin Alibhai-Brown gives a grudging vote of praise to Boris, noting that he is making sensible changes that don’t necessarily toe the party line.

Boriswatch is of course giddy with happiness that, as Dave Hill mentioned in his Guardian column “idiot savant no more“, Boris is not being the buffoon that many predicted! “Have you noticed how,” Dave writes, “no one is calling Boris blundering, bumbling or indeed an idiot any more?”

What do you think? Is Boris confounding his critics?

Boris’s plans to see if it would be viable to allow thousands of UK immigrants to earn the right to stay in Britain (first touted during his run for mayor) has been one of his more controversial policies — as shown by this article in (surprise, surprise) the Daily Mail –but now the Immigration Minister has decided to speak out, branding Bojo a ‘naive nincompoop’ for even considering the idea. Phil Woolas has recently restarted the backlash against this idea, stating that:

‘I have always thought that Boris was a bit of a nincompoop and these proposals are naive in the extreme.’

Now, hold on a second, there. It might be a controversial idea, but Boris isn’t talking about opening the floodgates and allowing the unwashed masses of the continent through our borders. He’s ordered a study. That means he wants to know more about the issue, not that he’s planning on rushing it through into legislation. Maybe the Government will be proved right, and the new rules would singlehandedly collapse the economy… but equally, maybe not. Either way, it certainly seems better to be making an informed decision, even if (in this case) it means Boris breaking ranks with the party line a little.

Whether you believe in the cause or not, surely idle namecalling is a pointless waste of time from the Immigration Minister? Shouldn’t it be his job to sort out these studies and make sure he’s as well-informed as possible, before disparaging ideas for their infeasibility? What do you make of the Minister’s response?

In a world where the difficulties they cause (and, to a lesser extent, face) are all-too-often considered the be-all and end-all of our nation’s youth, it’s sometimes nice to see something focus on the lighter side of life for young people — and who better to do that than Boris?

A member of his staff, Munira Mirza, has recently gone on record saying that she thinks it’s ‘extremely patronising’ that so-called ‘high culture’ is losing ground in the UK’s youth in favour of new forms, such as hip-hop and movies that kids can immediately relate to. The solution, according to Mirza, lies in providing young people with access to this type of entertainment (including classical music, theatre, opera, and others), instead of just providing them with easily-digested material. By giving them the opportunity to see these things, it’s possible to break down the barriers of snobbery and help to bring people together in a way that events targeted at specific ethnic minorities might not. To help this along, Boris is expected to launch a string of new proposals, including:

• An amnesty for old musical instruments lurking in the back of cupboards, so they can be passed on to young people.
• A reduction in the number of events held in Trafalgar Square.
• A series of events next year celebrating London’s people and history, entitled The Story of London.

Now, we all know Boris has a reputation for being a little… well, let’s say he’s not exactly known for his collection of rap CDs and leave it at that — but is he just out of touch with modern society, or is he right, and should we be making room for these older forms before our young people lose touch with them all together? As far as we at Boriswatch Towers can see, giving young people the choice, and making ‘old-fashioned’ culture available to them without attempting to dumb it down, can only be a good thing.

What do you think? Is it right that Boris is attempting to open young people’s minds to a new world of culture that might otherwise be overlooked, or is it a waste of time that could be better spent elsewhere? Are these new art forms less valid than Shakespeare and Verdi, or should we be making moves to enable them to co-exist in the youth of today without it being viewed as sad or elitist? Let us know in the comments.

There hasn’t been a great deal in the news in recent weeks about the 2012 Olympics, but that appears to be changing. Only a few days ago, Tessa Jowell made headlines for admitting what she saw as a gaffe on the part of the Government in tabling a bid for the Games. In light of the recent recession (and the rising costs of hosting the event), she was quoted as saying “Had we known what we know now, would we have bid for the Olympics? Almost certainly not.”

This was at a dinner, given for 40 heads of the leisure industry. Tessa Jowell is the Minister for the Olympics. Sure, reports have claimed that most of what she was saying was about the benefits the Olympics will hold for the City of London, but still… Ouch.

So, does Boris agree with her? Are we going to be able to struggle through this delicate financial quagmire we’ve been placed in?

Of course we are. Quoth Boris: “There is never a bad time to stage a spectacular event like the Olympic and Paralympic Games and, in the current economic climate, I believe London is extremely fortunate to be hosting the Games in 2012.”

Is Boris being overly optimistic, or are the Games going to help boost London’s reputation on the global stage, as well as financially, socially and athletically? Can we match up to the stellar show put on by the Chinese earlier this year? Have your say in the comments.

Sometimes, inspiration gets the better of Boris fans. And so it was this morning, when Boriswatch Towers received the fine image below (originally from B3ta but sent in by Tim), showing a devilishly menacing Bond-style Boris out to cut down nefarious foes in City Hall. Or something.

Anyway, awesome creation!

In a city being plagued by knife crime, it’s often the case that other dangerous objects are sidelined by the news. Not for Boris, however, who has recently come out to state that we have to do something about people who are using dogs as weapons. There’s no way of getting round the fact that dogs specifically bred for their viciousness can be a real threat to human life, and as such I think it can only be a good thing that attention is being drawn to them. I imagine the RSPCA would agree, as latest figures predict almost 800 dangerous dogs will have been picked up in the financial year 2008-9.

Is Boris right to highlight this issue, or should he be focusing on more important issues? What do you make of this?

Oh dear. Only a few days after he waxed lyrical about America’s new dawn, Boris has managed to annoy the Yanks once again. He recently caused a ruckus by stating (in his usual, subtle style) that the US Ambassador to the UK, Robin Tuttle, should be given an ASBO as a result of what BoJo seems to think amounts to fare-dodging the congestion charges for the last three years.

While that represents a healthy chunk of lost revenue (as any Londoner who doesn’t have the Geneva Convention on their side will tell you), Tuttle legally doesn’t have to pay; thanks to what basically comes down to diplomatic immunity, foreign officials don’t have to pay taxes in their country of residence. However, while both Boris and his predecessor Ken Livingstone criticised Tuttle for his distinct reluctance to pony up the dough, Red Ken insisted the toll was, in fact, a tax (a claim that Boris disagrees with). The US Embassy latched onto this, and proclaimed that Tuttle didn’t have to pay. As a result, we’re left with the current hiccup in Anglo-American relations: a great (and vaguely familiar) way of closing out the Bush years.

So what do you think? Should Boris let it drop, in order to maintain positive relations with our neighbours across the pond? Or should he push for Tuttle to regain his ‘dignity’, and join the masses of Londoners who pay the fees on a daily basis? Let us know in the comments.

As America takes its first steps into what is widely viewed as a new day in politics with the election of its first African-American president, public figures the world over are rushing to give their support to Barack Obama as he prepares to step up to the White House. Typically Boris had previously courted controversy (no change there, then) by publicly endorsing Obama’s run for the White House - an almost-unprecedented step in a world where most politicos like to keep their cards close to their chests. This resulted in a bit of a media backlash (most notably from Toby Harnden in the Telegraph), but it seems that Boris got his wish.

Or did he? As Harnden points out, only a year ago Johnson was endorsing Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House. While you could argue that he’s following the Democratic line (which would certainly be an unusual choice for a Conservative politician), his critics have claimed that it’s just an anti-Bush vote, and doesn’t reflect Obama or Clinton’s policies at all.

So, what did he have to say after Obama’s election?

It is in my view a fantastic win and a very encouraging sign for the world.

Short and sweet, and a view that’s echoed by leaders across the globe.

Is Boris’s support for Barack a sly attempt to protest the Bush regime, or a real hope for change in politics - a change that he could be seen to represent for the UK? I’m more inclined to believe the latter, but there’s always going to be cynics out there. What do you think?