The Metropolis

Speculation, not scrutiny, as the "will Boris become PM?" pieces keep flying off the zipwire

Mike Pollitt | Monday 6 August, 2012 13:52

In the last week alone you’ve been able to read:

Steve Richards in the Independent and Jacqui Smith at Progress saying no he won’t be PM.

His biographer Sonia Purnell at the Guardian saying he definitely shouldn’t be.

Peter Kellner of YouGov running through some polling numbers at the Huffington Post which appear to show that voters are similarly sanguine about the Mayor’s charms:

“Only 36% of voters think Boris is well suited to being Prime Minister. Cameron beats him easily, with a score of 46%. Among Tory voters the gulf is even greater: Cameron 90%, Boris 61%.”

And Phillip Collins in the Times (paywalled, but excerpted at their tumblr site) delivering the best line of all:

“Boris Johnson is a clown who happens to run a major world city. We like Mr Johnson as Mayor of London (those of us who do) because his power is limited. If London had its own defence budget we might be more wary. The best way to expose Mr Johnson’s credentials would be to devolve more power. Then the electorate would react the way that most children do when they see a clown. It’s not funny. It’s scary.”

The Mayoralty needs more power, if only so big media stop speculating on what the incumbent might do next, and start scrutinising what he’s doing right now.

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