Circus Clown

[gulliver1]

Wurzel johnson, wants to ride his bike into Downing Street as the new prime minister ,and save the con party, and save the country , when cameron is defeated in the next election... should he not have to become an MP first????

[jackthehat]

Surely this is only Andy Coulson's opinion.........?

[gulliver1]

It is also my opinion,JTH ,??? Now wait for the backlash, No offence to you JTH.

[New Judge]

If BoJo wants to become an MP (with the possibility of "promotion") he will no doubt be parachuted into a safe Tory seat valiantly vacated by one of his schoolchums.

[anneasquith]

boris, really! are the tory's that desperate ?

[Canary42]

No, he's too busy spawning love-children.

[gulliver1]

New judge , you are so correct . well thought out , you deserve a badge ???

[Peter Pedant]

.

Does the prime minister HAVE to be an MP

Historically no: you could be in the House of Lords - the last ones were Lords Salisbury and Rosebery. George V declined to make Marquess Curzon ('I am George Nathaniel Curzon: I am a very superior person' that one) prime minister in around 1935 because George thought the PM should be in the Commons.

We have had a Foreign Secretary wjh was not in the Commons - Carrington - not a ravy success - even Thatcher conceded that

and we have had a Foreign Secretary who was in neither - Gordon Walker in 1964 for arond two months

[FredPuli43]

And we could have had Lord Halifax instead of Churchill. Halifax, however, graciously decided that he'd rather be running his estates, and taking a lesser part, rather than running the War

[bibblebub]

if Bojo the Clown became PM then there would be some big shoes to fill

[Gromit]

Yes. There will be a few by elections before June 2015. Several MPs have offered to stand down and offer their seat to Boris. If Cameron is doing incredibly feebly, a Conservative could resign as MP in early 2015 and trigger a by election. Boris would have to reign as Mayor if he were elected. From there, he could replace Cameron before or after the General Election.

[FredPuli43]

If Cameron fails, they would be mad not to pick Boris. He's very competent in serious mood; the London electorate re-elected him, and this in a city which is predominantly Labour.

How can an old Etonian toff which a reputation for infidelity be a better bet than Cameron ? 1) Because the public like him. 2) in politics, he says what he thinks and doesn't give a toss about the party line is or what some team of image consultants and policy wonks thinks will appeal; he knows better than they do, and that is that the public like plain speaking without constant changing of tack to chase the polls. People like leaders to lead, not to keep looking around to see what might be popular this week

[FredPuli43]

^with^ not 'which a reputation'

[jno]

the London electorate re-elected him, and this in a city which is predominantly Labour

Not really; I don't think you'll see many Labour voters vote BoJo. But London's split between Labour inner city and Tory suburbs, and it's usually down to which feels crossest on the day.

[FredPuli43]

True,lifelong Labour voters don't vote for him. Those aren't the worry. He must have been securing a fair number of those who a) were not lifelong anything, but have voted Labour b) who bothered to vote.

[Gromit]

There are 73 Parliamentary Constituencies of roughly the same size in Greater London.

38 are Labour held
28 are Conservative held
7 are LibDem held

So a Conservative win is good, but remembering the voting system is completely dofferent

[emmie]

did he say so, i didn't, and i did listen quite carefully. He is not a clown, or buffoon or whatever daft comments get lobbed at him.

[emmie]

rather Boris as Mayor than that odious Ken Livingstone any day of the week.

[mikey4444]

I have commented on this point on AB before but nobody should underestimate Boris. He comes over as a buffoon, and reasonably likeable, much in the manner of the Uncle at the wedding that gets drunk and embarrasses everybody.

But beneath that smirking exterior lurks a very capable politician. You don't have to be Mystic Meg to predict that he will be the leader of the Tory party at some time in the future, probably sooner rather later. Whether he then becomes Prime Minister is up to the British electorate. The path to the door of Number Ten is strewn with the wreckage of the ambitions of Tory Party leaders.

Ian Duncan Smith, William Hague, Michael Howard, etc. Even Michael Heseltine nearly got in. He would have made it but the party made the puzzling choice of Major instead, something they regretted for nearly 20 years.

Ignore Boris at your peril !

[emmie]

because to some Heseltine was seen as a traitor, he was amongst others, one of those who brought about the end of Mrs T time in office.