Free-D

Before starting my weekly rant, I’d like to apologize for the amount of errors in the last few editions of the English page: it’s due to the sleep deprivation that comes with having a baby. But excuses aside, we’re all occasionally apt to be careless – idiotic even. Which brings me, in my usual roundabout way, to the election of Boris Johnson to the mayoralty of London (a small village just outside Berkshire). You might not be aware of who the fellow is. Well, he’s a conservative backbencher who has frequently taken part in a successful satirical TV quiz show, during which he appears in the role of a (supposedly) charming duffer. Whether this is an appropriate pastime for a politician is not the issue here; let’s just say that whatever the faults of our own mayor -Julian Lanzarote, nobody could accuse him of hiding behind a charming façade. It seems to me that Londoners have to ask themselves, “Is Boris Johnson a bona fide idiot or a shrewd political performer?” Certainly on the afore-mentioned TV show he appears to be a complete buffoon, and some would say that the performance is too convincing to be anything but genuine.

On the other hand, the speech Johnson gave directly after his victory showed him in quite a different light. Sure enough there was the usual apparently self deprecating delivery and a fair amount of “boobs”. Reading not too closely between the lines, however, the subtext of his speech was bristling rather uncomfortably with ill grace, bitterness and plenty of childish digs at the opposition. It was obviously a difficult moment for Johnson as he tried to marry his former TV personality with that of a recently invented “convincing” political figure. Given this I was somewhat taken aback to hear people referring to his speech as “gracious and surprisingly intelligent”. Personally I would have chosen the description, “maladroit, acidic and juvenile”. The mixture of “loveable buffoon” and political acuity simply doesn’t work. You can’t help wondering who voted for the man.

The uncomfortable fact is that those who did, did so either on the basis that he is a charming idiot (a shocking pretext for placing someone at the head of such an important city) – or because he is only pretending to be a fool, whilst in reality employing some kind of subterfuge. So, have it your way: fool or fraud. Actually either way, the real buffoons seem to be those who made their election according to such ill advised criteria. It almost makes you grateful for our less celebrity conscious Alcalde.