Shrill

One of the odder aspects of American punditry is what a bunch of shrinking violets a lot of my colleagues are -- it's an endlessly polite business and when some bloggers come on the scene with their name-calling everyone freaks out ("he said 'wanker!' I'm shocked"). Meanwhile, in the UK Martin O'Neil describes London's new Mayor:

As well as being a famous liar, Johnson has skirted the borders of criminality when it has suited his interests or those of his foul, larcenous and over-privileged friends. [...] Boris Johnson is not only shady, dishonest and incompetent. He is also a particularly offensive kind of clown, as is evidenced by his absurd litany of gaffes and insults. [...] Worst of all is Johnson’s casual racism, although it is perhaps not wholly surprising from someone of his class and background. [...] In any sane society, Boris Johnson would not be a plausible candidate for Mayor, even within the Conservative party.

Good times. Good luck, London!

Comments

Gives one a new perspective on Dsquared. Perhaps he is just addressing us in his version of a mild friendly tone.

Posted by Megan | May 2, 2008 6:45 PM

Ken would probably have benefitted not just from greater distance from the national Labour party, but from a two-term limit.

Too many Londoners are complacent about the improvements that have come to the city, and voted for Boris because he'd be 'a bit of a laugh'. Throw in the support of the right-wing Standard -- what Londoners have instead of a newspaper -- and the right-leaning nationals, and the entire election has been marked by a lack of high seriousness. As the 2012 Olympics draw near, you're going to see a fucking huge hangover as people realise that they've chosen a prize arsehole.

YouTube has some of Boris's defining TV moments. He's as articulate as Bush, as suited to executive office as Bertie Wooster, and as man-of-the-people as Mr Toad. Still, he may end up scuttling the Tories' chances of winning the next general election, since he's closely tied to 'Dave' Cameron and will be cited as an example of what Cameron would do for the rest of the country.

And in case anyone's curious, here's Boris in 2002:

What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness.

They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 2, 2008 6:47 PM

Former Mayor Livingston was an antisemitic, Israel bashing, fucktard. Good riddance to bad medicine.

Posted by SLC | May 2, 2008 6:52 PM

And along comes Stupid Lying C*nt with his jerking Kahanist knee.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 2, 2008 6:54 PM

Stay classy, lefties!

Posted by Al | May 2, 2008 6:57 PM

Andrew Sullivan says that Boris is his old college friend. I think we should demand that Andrew reject and denounce Mr. Johnson before he's allowed to post any further. :)

Posted by Michael S | May 2, 2008 7:10 PM

Re pseudonymous in nc

Mr. pseudonymous is cordially invited to take his comment and deposit it in his posterior orifice.

Posted by SLC | May 2, 2008 7:11 PM

Uh oh! Is SLC going to unleash "Hama Rules" on pseudonymous?

Posted by El Cid | May 2, 2008 7:14 PM

Andrew Sullivan says that Boris is his old college friend.

Indeed: they are memorialised side-by-side on the wall of the Oxford Union, recording a time when Sullivan had more hair on the top of his head, and Boris had slightly less.

Elsewise, I'm now convinced the Genocidalist Troll is a parody Kahanist.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 2, 2008 7:18 PM

Like you can't find the same thing on lefty blogs?

Just look at OpenLeft the last few days. The blog can be best summed up as 'HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE MY FRIENDS INTEGIRTY YOU MOB-RULED SWINE!'

Posted by Soullite | May 2, 2008 7:18 PM

"In any sane society, Boris Johnson would not be a plausible candidate for Mayor, even within the Conservative party."

Well, the pigeons come home to roost then. Labor has spent the last 15 years trying to destroy every bit of traditional British society. Do you really expect a society like that to act sane in any way?

Posted by jacobus | May 2, 2008 7:20 PM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIUp19bBoA

The mayor of london everyone!

Posted by James | May 2, 2008 7:25 PM

I remember seeing this guy on some PBS show about European perceptions of America. I thought he looked like a British Gary Busey. The scene recorded at a country music festival in Poland was pretty awesome though.

Posted by Ricky B | May 2, 2008 7:43 PM

We, the subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, do hereby give up any right to joke about how America elected George W. Bush.

*drowns self in bottle of vodka*

Posted by Peter St. John | May 2, 2008 7:52 PM

Labor has spent the last 15 years trying to destroy every bit of traditional British society.

First, it's 'Labour'. Second, don't be so bloody silly.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 2, 2008 7:55 PM

We, the subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Uh, let's narrow down the blame to Londoners, shall we? If the residents of the European Capital of Culture had had a say, Boris would... well, let's just say he wouldn't be mayor.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 2, 2008 8:00 PM

It's going to be a tough summer for my man Gordon Brown, methinks. Labour got sorely trounced. I still think he can pull it off, though.

Posted by Ben Cronin | May 2, 2008 8:02 PM

Needless to say, SLC is simply a liar.

And should anybody feel any love for Boris Johnson, I refer you to this.

A bigoted, racist, homophobic and incompetent buffoon as mayor for London - great, just great.

Posted by novakant | May 2, 2008 8:21 PM

Re novakant

Needless to say, Livingstone is soft on Arab terrorism and Mr. novakant is a pederast.

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/AntiSemi/7879.htm

Posted by SLC | May 2, 2008 8:32 PM

And SLC is an sociopathic equinophile. Ain't the internets fun?

Posted by Doug H. (Fausto no more) | May 2, 2008 8:49 PM

Hard to imagine a sane society electing a guy like Kwame Kilpatrick too. I doubt Detroit and London share a whole lot else in common besides corrupt mayors.

Posted by Zarco | May 2, 2008 10:58 PM

Gotta be a parody Kahanist, because no real Kahanist would be such a bad Jew.

That Wikiquote entry needs this addition, though: "I'm down with the ethnics. You can't out-ethnic me, Nihal. My children are a quarter Indian, so put that in your pipe and smoke it."

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 2, 2008 11:05 PM

Every word applies to Bush, except maybe the racism bit, but no one in a prominent traditional media position over here would ever speak the truth about him that bluntly or that well. They'd be crucified.

Posted by Doodah | May 3, 2008 12:44 AM

Well, since the incumbent was an actual commie -- not a democratic socialist, but an honest-to-god, hang-the-capitalists pinko -- it's hard to see how this new guy could be any worse.

Actually, Johnson sounds like an interesting and entertaining guy, which is more than you can say for most politicians.

Posted by too many steves | May 3, 2008 12:53 AM

I second too many steves. Johnson sounds entertaining and funny. Livingstone sounds truly truly vile. He invited and defended someone (al qaradawi) who supported female genital mutilation, the killing of American troops and pregnant Israeli woman and the use of suicide bombs. Johnson just acts like a buffoon.

Posted by nyx | May 3, 2008 2:26 AM

since the incumbent was an actual commie

Uh huh. How very American of you to say such a silly thing. You might as well say that he was an 'actual Martian', based upon your ability to judge such things.

For what it's worth, I think Livingstone should have stood down after two terms. Admittedly, there's not much else he could do in public life, but the run-up to 2012 might have benefitted from new blood, not blue blood.

Now, of course, Londoners will get to deal with the consequences. Not least of which will be having Boris receive the Olympic flag at the Beijing closing ceremony. Oh, that will be funny, in the way that Prince Philip's 'slitty eyes' line was a rip-roarer.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 3, 2008 2:37 AM

Boris’s supporters seemed disproportionately Asian and black, while Ken’s had more than a fair sprinkling of the white London working class (a group suspicious that he favors immigrants).

Times Online That's interesting. Are Boris supporters Asian and Black? Can someone explain this further?

Posted by nyx | May 3, 2008 2:42 AM

Because, nyx, as you suggested above Red Ken is in fact "truly vile", while Boris is in fact entertaining and funny. Asians and Blacks appreciate this as much as anyone else. The suggestions that Johnson's good natured buffoonery is indicative of any actual racism are typical lefty hogwash.

Labour is in meltdown mode, with no end in sight.

Posted by Robert Powell | May 3, 2008 3:54 AM

What politician isnt a famous liar?

And regarding johnson's supposed skirting the borders of criminality(almost certainly a reference to the inane darius guppy incident) there is no way he can be worse that livingstone on this score.

Posted by pimp hand strikes! | May 3, 2008 4:18 AM

In any sane society, Boris Johnson would not be a plausible candidate for Mayor, even within the Conservative party.

In any sane society, John McCain, a sponsor and booster of the biggest foreign policy disaster in American history, would not be a plausible candidate for President, even within the Republican party.

Posted by bob h | May 3, 2008 6:30 AM

Telling how the wingnuts only care about ideological lockstep and don't even consider that a politician actually has to, you know, actually do stuff, in our case manage a metropolis, and be reasonable competent at it.

There is no indication whatsoever in Boris Johnson's CV that he is capabable of doing his new job well and there's a lot that disqualifies him. And while Livingstone has a variety of faults, which the vast majority of his supporters will readily acknowledge, even his enemies concede that he has done an ok job as mayor over the last eigth years, which is no small feat in city such as London.

But of course his stance on Israel and his being a "communist pinko" (give me a break - London has been governed by a communist for the last 8 years? it's one of the most capitalist places on earth for god's sake) is much more important.

Posted by novakant | May 3, 2008 7:35 AM

"Livingstone sounds truly truly vile. He invited and defended someone (al qaradawi) who supported female genital mutilation, the killing of American troops and pregnant Israeli woman and the use of suicide bombs. Johnson just acts like a buffoon."
Ken is wrong on everything that doesn't matter to being Mayor. Boris is wrong on almost everything that does.

Anyway, I voted Paddick.

Posted by Shaun | May 3, 2008 8:28 AM

Needless to say, SLC is simply a vile vile vile vile vile liar.

Posted by Jennifer | May 3, 2008 8:49 AM

"There is no indication whatsoever in Boris Johnson's CV that he is capabable of doing his new job well and there's a lot that disqualifies him."

Which was true of Ken Livingstone 27 years ago and one of the reasons he didn't stand as leader of the labour councillors in 1981 but waited until the day after labour won the glc election before overthrowing McIntosh.

Posted by KB | May 3, 2008 9:26 AM

Worst comments section anywhere!

Posted by John Emerson | May 3, 2008 9:30 AM

"actual commie -- not a democratic socialist, but an honest-to-god, hang-the-capitalists pinko"

You have no idea what the fuck you are talking about. Please don't embarrass yourself further by posting until you get a clue.

Posted by Kalkin | May 3, 2008 9:30 AM

Re too many steve's comment "Well, since the incumbent was an actual commie -- not a democratic socialist, but an honest-to-god, hang-the-capitalists pinko -- "
--------------
You talk as if that was a bad thing

Posted by Don Williams | May 3, 2008 9:35 AM

Worst comments section anywhere!

Indeed. Is it asshole day here, and I didn't get the memo?

Posted by ERM | May 3, 2008 10:27 AM

The meltdown of Labour would suggest some questions about the durability of the rise of the Democrats here.

Posted by Thomas | May 3, 2008 12:39 PM

Yes, Thomas. It would.

Posted by Robet Powell | May 3, 2008 12:55 PM

No, Thomas, it wouldn't, given that Labour has, in fact, held the reins of government for the past eleven years, while the Democrats have not. Please warn recipients of your apple pies that they may have an orange filling.

In other news, the stick up the arse of Zeffirelli's Jesus cannot be dislodged.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 3, 2008 1:31 PM

Wow.

I guess it's now supposed to be some sort of edgy conjecture by those possessing magical, wizened- by- years- in- the- desert insight, that the rise of the Democrats in this country may be somewhat unstable given the incredibly narrow victories of 2006.

What next? Bold conjectures that the current housing crisis may, or may not, worsen?

Posted by El Cid | May 3, 2008 1:47 PM

In my view Labour's outright betrayal of Blair's promise to give Brits a referendum on the EU Constitution dooms them even more than Brown's ineptitude and the general fatigue factor. In any case, pseudo. in nc should seek help for his fixation with anal insertions. Weird.

And I don't think the "housing crisis" will survive the election. What percentage of the mortgages out there are "sub-prime" anyway? With Iraq fading in the background, Dems will need another crisis du jour.

Posted by Robert Powell | May 4, 2008 3:43 AM