Boris's E-Campaign Launches

As expected, Boris just told Nick Ferrari he will be running again. His team haven't wasted time launching his campaign website, which you can visit HERE.

You can follow his campaign on Twitter HERE (I was his first follower!) or join his Facebook Group HERE.

There. That's the end of my bit of Boris PR.

EXCLUSIVE: Lynton Crosby to run Boris Re-election Campaign

ConservativeHome (via Twitter) and Ben Brogan are already reporting the news that Boris Johnson will announce today that he will run for a second term as Mayor of London.

I understand (from non LBC sources) that he will make the declaration on Nick Ferrari's LBC Breakfast Show between 9 and 10am this morning.

I can also exclusively reveal that Australian elections guru Lynton Crosby has been signed up to run Boris's campaign, which will formally be launched at the Conservative Party Conference in three weeks time.

Keep tuned for more as I get it...

PS You can stream the Nick Ferrari Show at lbc.co.uk.

How Can We Revive Parliament?

I've had calls this morning from two MPs spitting blood about Boris Johnson's article in this morning's Telegraph. In the article he rails against the way parliament works (or doesn't) and the whipping system in particular. He paints a picture of lazy MPs who don't bother to think about what they are voting on and who bow meekly to a powerful executive.

They file through the lobbies to vote – and what are they voting on? Nine times out of 10, they haven't a clue. All they know, because their BlackBerrys tell them, is whether the whips want them to vote Aye or Nay; and so they shuffle obediently on and then, with a fatuous sense of a job done and a public served, they return to their dinners or the yielding arms of their companions of the evening; and yet another unnecessary and ill-drafted law prepares to enter the statute book; and the put-upon people of this country will be chivvied or taxed or cajoled or coerced in some new way by MPs who have only the vaguest understanding of what they have done.

I have lost count of the number of times I have sat through debates, after which my colleagues have begun their speeches with the words, "This has been an excellent debate", and I have wanted to shout, "No! It hasn't been remotely excellent.

"It has been a collection of cut-and-paste Lego-brick speeches in which people have been speaking not from the heart or direct knowledge of the issue, but because the whips have suggested it would be a good idea to speak."

Both my correspondents spluttered that Boris was the very personification of the parliament he now vilifies. One of them even questioned why the Telegraph hadn't looked into Boris's expenses. Boris's recipe for the future is that all MPs should stick two fingers up to the whips - not something I remember him doing a lot of in his time in the House of Commons, but there you go...

We want a new breed of MPs who will consistently tell the whips to get stuffed; who will smash the brutal and intellectually enervating system of party discipline that turns Westminster into a kind of Seventies Leyland car factory, apathetically turning out badly assembled laws to plague the people of this country.

We need far fewer laws and far fewer MPs (400 would do fine). My advice to constituency parties is not to hire candidates unless they promise two things: to read every line of every Bill they are called upon to pass; and to vote according to their conscience, and not according to the wishes or orders of the whips.

That may gum up the machinery of law-making, and that would be all to the good. It may make it impossible for Parliament to produce yet another annual Criminal Justice Bill. It may make it more difficult for MPs to produce yet more laws telling teachers, doctors, nurses and other public
servants how to manage their vocations.

If we had fewer MPs, and they were forced to concentrate on what they were actually doing, we would have much less legislation, and I can't think of a better way of saving us all time, trouble and money.

We need a Parliament of rebels, and we need it now.

I know where he's coming from, but this is very simplistic and populist. What he's suggesting is that Parliament should be made up of 646 independents, with very little party allegiance. That may reflect the prevailing mood, but it would lead to the seizing up of our system of parliamentary government.

I agree with him that politicians of the future need to be more individualistic and take far more interest in the legislation they are passing, but without a degree of whipping no government - or opposition, for that matter - would be able to function. Yes, whipping is too heavy at the moment, but a reactive move to the other side of the whipping pendulum would not improve matters. So what would?

New MPs must commit themselves to attending debates in the chamber more often and make it the national debating forum it is supposed to be. But the government must play its own part too. Instead of being addicted to passing legislation, it should allow far more parliamentary time for opposition debates and debates on the big issues of the day. When was there a long debate, for example, on the economic crisis? Graeme Archer points out today that MPs were denied the chance to vote on DNA sample retention. Why? No wonder voters see Parliament as being irrelevant.

MPs must assert themselves and their independence. Too often they are consumed by their own ambition to climb the greasy pole of politics. They know that any dissent is likely to be rewarded either with a further year of languishing on the backbenches or being appointed to Standing Committee A on European legislation. Rebellion for its own sake should never be rewarded. But conscience and conviction driven rebellion should be seen in a more positive light by the whips than it is at present. Government whips see there role through a very narrow prism - that of enabling the government to get its legislation through, with nothing else mattering. That needs to change.

When you get elected to the House of Commons any form of career planning goes out the window. You're randomly appointed to standing committees on bills you have no knowledge of or interested in. Indeed, if you do have knowledge of the subject you can be sure you won't be appointed to that committee, because heaven forfend that you should wish to table amendments or make a speech in committee. You role is to sit there for hours, preferably mute, and get on with your constituency correspondence, while the front benches do their pre-arranged stuff through the "usual channels". It's this which needs to change as lies at the heart of what's wrong with parliament today.

If you're lucky, and have kept your snout clean you might be appointed to a junor frontbench role, and then be expected to vote with your party every time. Any semblance of original thought goes out the window. It's likely that your frontbench role will, again, not be in an area where you have any expertise at all. You'll have to learn about your portfolio, and just when you think you might have got the hang of it and met all the relevant people you are reshuffled, with no consultation, to another random portfolio. Chances are you only got it because the first choice turned it down. But you accept it because you fear if you don't you'll be on your way out. Rarely does the Chief Whip ever sit you down and discuss your future in advance of it being decided for you.

One of the best things which could happen is for political parties to take a leaf out of the book of private sector organisations and develop some proper career planning structures for their MPs. being on the front bench should never be the be all and end all for any politician. Just being an MP ought to have enough job satisfaction on its own. There has been some progress on this by making Select Committees more powerful. Interestingly, Michael Fallon turned down a front bench Treasury role because he wanted to continue on the Treasury Select Committee. I can see more of this happening in the future. The Conservatives in government should also revive the backbench policy committees which did so much good work during the Thatcher and Major years.

As ever, Boris writes a thought provoking article, but his recipe is flawed and simplistic. There are many ways of enhancing the role of parliament and its reputation which he doesn't mention and which I haven't talked about here, but I have gone on long enough.

What would you do to revive the independence of Parliament and encourage the public to take a closer interest in its proceedings?

UPDATE: EU Referendum has a good post on this subject.

Boris Should Tell Duvall to Kiss His Sweet White Ass

This morning the standards sub committee of the MPA/GLA Sub Committee on standards met to decide whether to refer Boris Johnson to the Standards Board for England over his phone call to Damian Green.

The committee decided not to do that, and instead decided to launch a short internal investigation. This was probably the best possible outcome for Boris. The last thing he would have wanted was a referral to the Standards Board, as it would have had echoes of the time his predecessor was referred and found guilty over his Nazi comments to a Jewish journalist.

However, certain politically motivated members of the MPA subcommittee decided that they would spin this in a rather different manner. The meeting broke up at 12.15pm this lunchtime. Within eleven minutes, Dave Hill, 'blogger laureate' to the London Assembly, had blogged the full details of the meeting. He pointed out that no one could say anything 'on the record' until a formal decision notice had been issued - hence no comment from Boris.

Eight and a half hours later, the MPA had the good grace to email the Mayor's office to inform him of the decision - five hours after all the details had been given to the Guardian's Helene Mulholland.

The very same committee then cleared Labour GLA member John Biggs of misconduct for alleging that Boris tipped Damian Green off - something he patently did not do. [UPDATE: John Biggs has asked me to point out that he totally denies making any such allegation and actually said the Mayor "appears to have tipped off a suspect", which is not quite the same thing, and that is why he was cleared by the committee]

This committee is embarked on a witchhunt against Boris. And he should tell them exactly what he thinks of their Kangaroo court. It's entirely politically motivated.

At the time of Ken Livingstone's suspension by the Standards Board I argued that they had no right to suspend a democratically elected mayor from office, no matter what he had done. And I argue the same here - that Boris can only be ejected from office by the electorate, not a bunch of politically motivated individuals (led by MPA chairman and Livingstone lackey Len Duvall) who aren't fit to kiss his sweet white ass.

Boris Strikes Again

Three cheers for Boris! Again! He has scrapped the western extension of the congestion charge. There was never any merit in this in terms of cutting congestion - indeed, in some ways it encouraged it. Local people voted en masse in favour of scrapping it and Boris has responded appropriately.

Ways of Driving Traffic to Paul Waugh's Blog: No 94

Paul Waugh of the Evening Standard (who writes an excellent blog) will have caused a few male blood pressures to raise this morning, not to mention the hackles of a few feminists. He's written about an interview Total Politics has done in next month's issue (out tomorrow) with Boris Johnson, in which he reveals that he prefers blondes. Waugh has illustrated his story on this blog with a picture of Cheryl Tiegs with ... well, there's no other way of putting this ... her tits out.

I just emailed him to say I wonder how he gets away with it. If I put that picture on here I would be kicked from pillar to post. Or perhaps not...

Just in case you think interviewer James Silver was only interested in talking to Boris about fluff, let me dispell that. He also called Ken Livingstone's administration "pretty sleazy" and warned that criminal prosecutions in connection with misuse of public funds are "almost certain". More HERE. The full interview will be available from tomorrow on the TP website.

UPDATE: The Scotsman also has a long piece about an interview I have done with Alex Salmond. Thankfully Salmond doesn't get his tits out in the interview.

EXCLUSIVE: Boris's First Deputy To Resign

Having enjoyed a huge PR success (and intensely annoyed Downing Street in the process) yesterday with the announcement of an Olympic parade, Boris Johnson is about to make a move which on the face of it will be seen as a setback, but in reality will demonstrate that he is really getting to grips with his job.

In about an hour's time Boris will formally announce that the First Deputy Mayor Tim Parker is to step down from his job and also as chairman of Transport for London. Boris will now chair TfL himself. Parker will not be replaced as First Deputy Mayor. I am told that there has been no falling out and that the decision is mutual.

Tim Parker is a protege of Francis Maude and was brought in to "help" Boris by the transition team headed by Nicholas Boles. The subtle impression given was that he there to stop Boris being Boris and be the day to day business manager of the adminsistration. My reading of his formal departure (although he will continue as an adviser) is that this is a crucial decision, and means that Boris is putting his stamp on his own administration. TfL is crucial to this, as he has now (finally) come to understand.

Boris's next move should be to fire Peter Hendy, the chief executive of TfL. Hendy has made a convincing show so far of appearing to carry out Boris's wishes, but the reality is very different. He has been running his own show, in his own way and resents any "interference" from the Mayor's office. He must go, and sooner or later Boris will come to understand this.

No doubt Boris will take some media flack today for losing a third senior figure in his team after less than four months, but in my experience, if you decide someone is not working out it is better to grasp the nettle sooner rather than later. It's a good thing that he has not let it drag on. In May Tim Parker told The Times: "“You have to try to understand what you have to do in the first 100 days or so if you possibly can. If there are big changes you want to make, you have to try and get on with them.” Indeed so.

I guess one big advantage for Boris in this move is that he can finally cock a snook at those who believe his adminstration is being run from CCHQ. With the departure of James McGrath, then Nicholas Boles and now Francis Maude's friend Tim Parker, there are few CCHQ appointees left. Boris can now truly be his own man.

UPDATE: London Says has the full statement HERE.

Welcome to Boris Johnson International Airport...

Boris Johnson will have spoken for thousands today when he related his awful experience of Gatwick Airport in his Telegraph column today. He ends his column with these hopefully prophetic words...

It is ever more urgent that we investigate the possibility of a long-term solution, in the form of a new and more eco-friendly airport at a site in the Thames estuary - of which you will be hearing a lot more in due course.

I wonder what he meant by that. I hope he meant that as London mayor he will back such an enterprise. In the 1990s a company called Marinair came up with an innovative plan to build an airport slap bang in the middle of the Thames estuary. Now is the time for them to dust it off, revive it and spark a real national debate about its feasibility.

But the debate cannot last forever. Heathrow and Gatwick are at bursting point. If London wants to remain a pre-eminent world city it needs airports to match its ambition. If the capacity cannot be provided at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted it has to be found elsewhere.

So in 2017 I look forward to hearing the captain of my plane telling us through the intercom: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we're about to land at London's Boris Johnson International Airport..."

Every successful politician leaves a legacy. This can be Boris's!

Boris and His Absent Backbone

For those of a sensitive disposition, be warned. I am going to pour a bucket of the brown stuff over the Mayor of London. This evening Boris Johnson "let go" one of the most decent, loyal, honest members of staff a politician could ever hope to find. His Chief Political Advisor, James McGrath, has left his job this morning over an alleged remark he is supposed to have made to someone called Marc Wadsworth. Wadsworth details the exchange HERE. His article is headlined

BLACKS SHOULD 'GO HOME IF THEY DON'T LIKE THE MAYOR'.

The headline, however, does not match the quote in the article. Note the position of the quotation marks in the title and then contrast those words with those in the article. Read on...

McGrath was far from politically correct, David-Cameron-new- cuddly-Conservative Party, when I pointed out to him a critical comment of Voice columnist Darcus Howe that the election of “Boris Johnson, a right-wing Conservative, might just trigger off a mass exodus of older Caribbean migrants back to our homelands”. He retorted: “Well, let them go if they don’t like it here.” McGrath dismissed influential race commentator Howe as ‘shrill’.

James McGrath is a no-nonsense Aussie. He doesn't beat about the bush, but these remarks could have been made about any group who "don't like it here" - white, black, whatever.

I'm told that McGrath honourably fell on his sword. But I am not sure he was given any choice in the matter. All Boris has done is attempt to appease people who are quite frankly not capable of being appeased. What he should have done is stand by the man who has stood by him through thick and thin over the last eight months. Instead, Boris has hung James McGrath out to dry - apparently either with the connivance of or at the behest of the Party leadership - in the most despicable and and cowardly manner possible.

Boris needs people who are loyal to him in City Hall - there are precious few of them. Too many people have their own agendas. If those loyal to you make an error, you ball them out and move on and then defend them in public. You don't "let them go" at the first whiff of incoming. Livingstone loyalists will be crowing this evening.

Having defended Boris over his 'piccaninny' and 'watermelon' comments I am now wondering why we all bothered. What he has done today is create a rod for his own back. All anyone needs to do in future is for anyone to shout 'racist' for the most spurious reason and the subject of the accusation will be toast.

It may be a good thing that Boris has made a rod for his own back. It can go where his backbone should be.

Boris has just released a statement...

"It is with great regret this evening that I have accepted the resignation of my political adviser, James McGrath. James has been a loyal, committed and highly professional colleague. I will always be grateful to him for his skills, advice and support in helping elect me as Mayor of London. Unfortunately, his remarks in a conversation with an Internet journalist, published this weekend, made it impossible for him to continue in that role. James is not a racist. I know that. He shares my passionate belief that racism is vile, repulsive and has no place in modern Britain. But his response to a silly and hostile suggestion put to him by Marc Wadsworth, allowed doubts to be raised about that commitment. London is blessed with a rich ethnic and cultural diversity. It is one of the main reasons why I regard it as the greatest city on earth, and I am determined, as Mayor, to serve each and every community with equal passion and commitment. James's remark was taken out of context and distorted, but he recognises the need for crystal clarity on a vital issue like this. We both agree that he could not stay on as my political adviser without providing ammunition for those who wish to deliberately misrepresent our clear and unambiguous opposition to any racist tendencies. I wish James well in the future, thank him for his contribution and urge everyone not to misrepresent his view or misinterpret his intentions any further".

As I said, get a backbone, Boris. During the campaign, in an interview with me you said you "reserve the right to continue to make gaffes". What's good for the goose, is clearly not good enough for the gander, eh?

It's Official: Boris is Fit

I bring good news for all Londoners. The Mayor has the body of a man five years younger than himself! Perhaps he'd like to give it back ... boom, boom. Seriously, Boris had a medical on Friday - it's the rules apparently. All that cycling and giving up the booze seems to have done the trick, as I can reveal that he passed the medical with flying colours.

Boris apparently has the lungs of an ox, after he breathed out 5.5 litres (maybe I have got the wrong measure there...) of air, compared to the norm of 4 litres. No jokes about politicians and hot air, please.

EXCLUSIVE: Boris's First Act as Mayor...

When Boris sat down at his desk on Monday morning he was presented with a huge press cuttings file, which included loads of articles from the Morning Star. 'Why on earth are you including these?' he asked one of his staff. 'Well,' said the staff member, 'Mayor Livingstone was keen to support the Morning Star'. 'In what way?' asked Boris.

It transpired that the GLA Building had a subscription of forty - yes, forty - copies of the Morning Star delivered every day. Boris's first action as Mayor was to cancel all forty subscriptions to the lefty rag, thereby halving its circulation with one stroke of the mayoral pen. That's what I call the mark of a real Conservative - annoy the leftists and save the taxpayer £10,000 a year at the same time.

Telegraph Column: Boris is Serious About London

My Telegraph column today is HERE. It's all about Boris, his first week, his first 100 days and what it all means for David Cameron and the Conservative Party.

Breaking News: Kate Hoey to Join Team Boris

Boris Johnson has just announced on LBC that Kate Hoey would join his administration as a Non Executive Director in charge of promoting competitive sport and monitoring the Olympics.

I imagine this will now result in the Labour whip being withdrawn from her. Could a full defection then follow?

UPDATE: Rather hilariously, LBC didn't seem to recognise that they had a major exclusive and didn't mention it in their 9am news bulletin.

Paddick Needs to Discover a Sense of Humour

I don't know how many of you caught the London mayoral debate on the BBC Politics Show this lunchtime but again it was a pretty unedifying spectale, but slightly better than the Newsnight equivalent. Accuse me of being biased if you like (and I know I can rely some of you to do just that!) but I felt that Boris shaded it. At the end he called Ken Livingstone 'stale' and I think that's exactly how the Mayor came across - no now policies, no new ideas. Boris was clearly up for it, while the Mayor seemed to be going through the motions. Jon Sopel tried to goad Boris with some selective quotes but Boris sailed through the jibes rather majesterially.

But perhaps what came out of it most was the total eclipse of Brian Paddick. I have always had a lot of respect for him, but his campaign hasn't caught fire. I think his performance in this debate showed why. He badly needs to discover a sense of humour. If you are fighting two people who are masters of the the oneliner you need to play them at their won game and use humour as part of your political armoury. He particualrly needed some sort of funny line when he repeatedly refused to say who his second preference would go to. In the end he ended up hinting that it would go to the Greens. Not good enough. If the LibDems are in favour of a proportional system, the electorate deserves to know who a candidate's second preference would go to. It tells you something about them. Brian Paddick failed this test and throughout the interview appeared a sideshow to the main focus of Boris v Ken.

Red Ken Runs Scared

Frit.

Archer Warns Boris of Livingstone's 'Dirty Tricks'

Star interviewer Rob McGibbon has conducted a fascinating interview with Jeffrey Archer over at AccessInterviews.com. I've posted a clip from it in the video box over on the right, but for the whole thing, click HERE. Archer says he thinks Boris will lose (although it was recorded a month ago, so maybe he's changed his mind) and warns him that Livingstone will put up a dirty fight. I think we're already seeing the beginnings of that.

Could This Video Do For Boris What ObamaGirl Did For Barack?

Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? I'm the first person to have viewed this on YouTube. Let's see if we can beat ObamaGirl's five million or so!

Boris Plans to Ban Alcohol on the Tube

This morning Boris Johnson has announced a new policy of banning alcohol on the London Underground.

“London has a higher rate of alcohol-related crimes than any other region in England and I have been told time and again that people are scared of taking the Underground late at night because of aggressive behaviour by drunken yobs.Too many people find themselves forced to sit opposite someone swigging from a can of lager and engaging in behaviour that is intimidating or worse. I want everyone’s journeys to be safer and more pleasant"

Public disorder offences on the Tube increased 32.2% last year, criminal damage was up by 36.9% and sexual offences were up by 14.9%. British Transport Police Chief Constable Ian Johnston said in 2005 that there had been an increase in alcohol related crimes on public transport; "We flag crimes that have an alcohol connection. So if we arrest a burglar or a robber who's drunk we flag the crime. And we've had about a 30% increase in that level of flagging across the force over the last year."

As a liberal Conservative I instinctively recoil from banning things. However, is it liberal to allow tube users to be abused by drunken louts? No, definitely not. I think this policy will be welcomed by many as long as it is policed properly.

Boris: Brown Lied at Press Conference

Boris Johnson is not a happy bunny. At his press conference this morning, Gordon Brown asserted that under a Johnson mayoralty police numbers would be cut. Boris has just issued this rather forthright statement...

The first time Gordon Brown said this he misled the House and I demanded an
apology. Now he uses his Northern Rock press conference to spread the same
lies. When I am Mayor of London, police numbers will increase in their
hundreds in the Capital, as I explained in my 36 page crime manifesto. For the
Prime Minister to say different is just plain rubbish. Mired in
maladministration, Labour are just trying to deflect attention away from
themselves at a time when the public are crying out for change. I offer that
change in London - clearly the Prime Minister doesn't like it one bit.

Boris is on the March to the Mayoralty

Boris seems to have gone into overdrive. And what's more he's got a very colourful new website. It was always my hope that his apparent inactivity in the weeks before Christmas was a typical Boris-type ruse to lull his opponents into thinking he wasn't serious and that he'd come out in January all guns blazing. He actually spent the time on policy developing and immersing himself in London issues. Far from being a hive of inactivity he spent the time visiting all parts of the capital to brief himself on local issues and meet people away from the gaze of the press.

The ITV poll which put him only one point behind Livingstone demonstrates that the mayoralty is Boris's for the asking. The poor showing of Brian Paddick at a mere 7% demonstrates that this really is a two horse race. Only Boris can beat Ken! The fact that Boris has now got Lynton Crosby, Toby Vintcent and James McGrath on board also bodes well for the future of his campaign's strategic planning.

Go Boris!