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Spin - It makes you ill

Dear Boriswatchers,

Boriswatch Towers got mildly tainted yesterday by the expenses scandal and wants to clear up a couple of points:

1. The site Boriswatch.com has never received funding by Boris Johnson or anyone connected with him. The site is wholly independent – but rather likes him.
2. If people asked before publishing, they would get closer to the real story. The BBC asked; the Evening Standard didn’t even try, and gave implications in this article that are wholly untrue. There’s a lesson there that I’m sure doesn’t need spelling out – or maybe the Standard just wanted to sell more papers.

I’d like to thank Tory Troll for actually taking the time to contact Boriswatch and actually publish the truth. His post this morning couldn’t be fairer.

Onwards and upwards, Boriswatchers!

Best Wishes,

Simon

Boriswatch is nothing if not generous with the site’s promotion to the masses. We’ve done a Boriswatch video, appeared on the BBC and Sky, enabled Boriscards to be sent around the web, set up a Boriswatch Facebook group, made t-shirts and thongs and generally said yes to everything. Well, not everything.

And now, dear readers, Boriswatch has today been broadcast on BBC London, who pitched the site against the recently started Boriswatch.co.uk, a site less about accountability  – as it states – and more about getting Mayor Ken back. I came out of the dark-roomed interview blinded by the lights and thinking of all the things I should have said instead. There was a lot more to the interview, but I suppose my staunch defence of Mayor Boris will have to stay on the cutting room floor…

So, here it is:

Just a quick note to say that the Advertise page is now fixed, and ready and waiting to boost your traffic…

Boriswatch gets quite a few requests for information from students, who are often using Boris or Boriswatch as a muse for their essays and even dissertations. Here – with her permission – is a Boriswatch Q and A session with Helen Clark, a journalism student from University of Lincoln.

Q: When and why was Boriswatch started?
A: Boriswatch was started in 2003 when I saw Boris on Have I Got News For You and found him intensely funny. I looked on the internet, and found virtually nothing about him. So, seeing as I could build websites, I started Boriswatch. It was originally a subsection of my personal website, but gained its own web domain in early 2004.

Q: How good has the response been to it?
A: Immense. After about 3 weeks of posting, the visitors ramped up to around 300 a week. Now, the site pulls in over 2000 visitors a week, has two contributors, and has appeared on BBC News, Sky News and ITV. We’ve had articles published in FHM, BBC News and the official Back Boris site, as well as interest from smaller organisations. And – dare I mention it – there’s even a Boriswatch-constructed Boris For Mayor song!

Q: Has Boris himself seen or commented about the website?
A: Boris has seen it and commented on it on ITV and the BBC as well as his personal website – and thanks to his wonderful team I have met up with him many times. There was even a Central News piece on Boriswatch itself, complete with a discussion with Boris on what he thinks of the site, Boriswatch t-shirts and the first mention of the legendary Boriswatch Thong. However, when the Boris team first approached me, their opening line was “Are you some sort of nutter?”

Q: Why do you think Boris appeals so much to the younger generation?
A: Well, firstly, he’s funny. Some people don’t like his privileged upbringing, but his personality and self-deprecation takes the edge off of the criticisms. Personality is a rare commodity in politics, and it’s a breath of fresh air. Because he’s funny, people listen to him. And because they listen to him, they realise that he speaks his mind, regardless of the political fallout, which is very rare in politics. And because people find he says what he thinks, they tend to agree with him! People can see that underneath the messy fair lies a very clever brain – I’ll never forget when he forgot write a Telegraph column that was due to be published the next day. It was 12.30pm, and we were in a pub in Oxfordshire. He whipped out two paper napkins from behind the bar and started writing. That article, written on the spur of the moment, was in the paper the next day, almost completely unedited. I know many people that take days to achieve the same thing…
And let me tell you – I’ve met him many times, and his appearance and personality is no act. He is the same in private as he is in person – which can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing!

Q: Why do you think he has had the ability to weather problems which would have destroyed other politicians careers?
A: It’s the Stephen Fry school of deprecation, I think. Most of the time, people actually agree with him. He speaks sense, and cheers people up. That’s a very rare quality, and people warm to him so much that minor transgressions can be forgiven. People don’t want to lose the one person that speaks sense and entertains them in politics. Yes, he gets things wrong – but when he does, he admits them, rather than cover it up like most public figures.

Q: What would you consider to be Boris’ finest moment?
A: Ooooh, good one. Well, up until now, I would have to say becoming a minister in shadow government would have to be the top achievement so far. Boris has always wanted to focus on politics, and he would have been chuffed at that.
However, the greatest achievement is get to come – becoming Mayor of London!

Got a Boris photo you’re aching to share with Boris fans? Video footage of BoJo? Something else? Help is at hand with a new widget we’ve added to the bottom of the sidebar. It enables you to send files into us simply and easily. Get sending!

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?

An email has flooded in to Boriswatch Towers, asking why the site isn’t covering every aspect of Boris’s Mayoral viewpoints, policy decisions and so on.
Well, I gave it a go. In fact, I wrote several pieces that could have appeared on Boriswatch, listing all the happenings, occurances and occasions that had happened in the few days since the previous posting. But then it dawned on me that I was reinventing the wheel! There are full-time bloggers that are covering most of the announcements with stonking alacrity, so much so that my reference to them hours later seemed more of an afterthought.
Sure, Boriswatch will report and comment on the big Boris news of the moment. Hell, it’s been a forfront of Boris news since the day it was conceived over a hot chocolate, late one frosty afternoon. It will still cover the quirky stories, it will still be a fine source of news on all things Boris. And T-Shirts, mugs and thongs! But with the Mayoral campaign just about to kick off, make sure you also browse the following fine sites for your political punditry:

www.mayorwatch.co.uk
www.westmonster.com
ConservativeHome

So, a very happy New Year to all Boriswatch readers – and see you in 2008, Boris’s Big Year!

A very merry Christmas to all Boriswatcher everywhere! We hope you have a wonderful time.

And if you still need to send Christmas cards, why not send a Boriscard?

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Evening all! In the absence of much Boris-related happenings, the Boriswatch monkeys have been slaving over a hot web page, and you’ll now find a quicker site and a different layout. Have a play around…

Still to do:

• Forum
• TV Listings
• Check Links