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Boris Johnson struggles to get his priorities right

July 2, 2012 3:08 pm

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After I noted on Twitter this afternoon that Boris Johnson had been unusually quiet on banking and bankers recently, I was directed to his Telegraph column, and fair enough, he does mention Bob Diamond, saying “I am a fan of Bob Diamond and his philanthropic work”. The Mayor of London – truly a man capable of seeing the best in people.

However, most of the column – written as a crisis englufs his beloved City of London, is about another key, pivotal issue of the day – the right to swim in and, perhaps, down in the Thames. Lets take a look at how the column can be broken down shall we:

Banking crisis consuming the centre of your city? Or the Libertarian right to swim (and drown) in the Thames. Getting your priorities right can be a difficult choice…

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  • Pingback: Bankers' buddy Boris breaks promise not to slash police and fire budgets | Left Foot Forward

  • http://twitter.com/BorisWatch Boris Watch

    Another thing Boris might have trouble remaining silent on is the HMIC report that effectively accuses him of making unfunded police spending commitments and failing to tackle the consequent massive budget deficit in the Met, which is also one of only two forces nationwide to fail to submit estimates of projected police manpower in 2014/5.  Jumping into the river may end up being his only escape route.

    • leslie48

      The upcoming London policing crisis is ‘invisible’ to most print media which of course made it so two or three months   led by the free evening  ’Ken Bashing’  Evening Standard in its worship of one B. Johnson. This of course raises many issues 1) Labour needs to highlight the growing crisis which is reported by the BBC as insufficient police to deliver basic Law and Order to many many million taxpayers 2) How is  a ‘free paper’ given out to millions of Londoners allowed to become  a Tory propaganda sheet during an election campaign- surely this is a bad precedent because it says any billionaire can now influence election campaigns. You will of course recall Ken’s claims of gross media distortions during is defeat speech. 

  • AnotherOldBoy

    Oh dear!  Mr Johnson does not only communicate through his excellent column in the Daily Telegraph each Monday.  A quick Google search shows that the recently re-elected Mayor has made plenty of statements over the last few days about the LIBOR scandal calling for appropriate action, including prosecutions.

    So I don’t know why Mr Ferguson thinks that Mr Johnson has been “unusually quiet on banking and bankers recently”.

  • Bill Lockhart

    Mark, these bar “graphs” you insist on posting on this site just make you look ridiculous.
    Sorry.

    • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

      Odd that you should say that. But I suppose you’re prone to the sort of over-interpretation that turns everything into the opposite of what it actually is.

      Plainly, the bar chart makes Johnson look ridiculous.

      • Bill Lockhart

         The culminative effect of the “graphs”, plural,  which Mark Ferguson insists on publishing on this site is to make him, Mark Ferguson, look ridiculous. Clear?

        • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

          How does the bar chart accompanying this blog contribute to making Mark look ridiculous? Explain!

        • postageincluded

          I think you’ve missed one essential point here, Bill – it’s what’s called a “joke”.

  • John Dore

    Boris’s lies on Police numbers is the bigger story.

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