‘How Do You Solve a Problem Like Boris’?
Lottie:
October 5th, 2006
These were David Cameron’s words, not mine, although i do follow his sentiment. Boris Johnson is a politician whose ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place and with the wrong wrong hairstyle is unsurpassed. However, as the BBC astutely pointed out yesterday, he somehow remains stubbornly rooted to the Tory front bench.
The BBC suggests that it is his unrivalled celebrity status outside the party, which allows him to be recognised simply by his first name, that keeps him in the Tories good books and that he is capable of “entertaining us by simply being himself” . Proof of that came on Newsnight two days ago when, devoid of any proper stories at the Tory Party conference, all the journalists assembled decided to simply follow Boris around all day after he made yet another mild yet stupid remark, this time about a fellow ‘celebrity’, Jamie Oliver.
Johnson’s comment, on October 3rd, that Oliver’s school dinner revolution was just “too much”, was ignorant and overlooked the alarming growth in childhood obesity in the UK. Obviously Johnson realised he’d picked on the wrong guy and hastily backtracked with a superb piece of overstatement, proclaiming now that Oliver was in fact the ‘Messiah’. I’m sensing a Judas complex lurking somewhere. Perhaps, rather than appearing like a man incapable of doing or saying anything in moderation, Johnson was simply jealous of his saviour’s celebrity and is just waiting for the right moment to betray him and then take the culinary world by storm. Very clever B, very clever…