Boris Johnson: Worse than Hitler

Were I a betting man, I wouldn't mind putting a few quid on Boris Johnson for next mayor of London. Why do I think this? Well, I don't believe that the Labour Party, and its innumerable hangers-on, would be attacking Johnson quite so frequently, and with quite so much vigour and vitriol, unless they were really rather scared of him.

In the latest attack, the Brownite Compass group has accused him of being "a type of Norman Tebbit in a clown's uniform", "a champion of the 'regressive consensus' who threatens the 'very large progressive consensus in the capital'", and a threat to multiculturalism. He sounds more appealing already, doesn't he?

Compass has gone so far as to create a dossier of Johnson's thought crimes, which sounds like rather interesting reading:

The dossier's charges range from his "enthusiastic" support for the Iraq war (where he once claimed there had been only 150 casualties) and George Bush, to his opposition to the Kyoto treaty on climate change, the minimum wage and the public smoking ban. Mr Johnson also supports fox and stag hunting, grammar schools and section 28 - Tory legislation outlawing the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools.

His risque jokes as a magazine and newspaper columnist are also in Compass's sights. It cites instances when he referred to black people as "piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles"; accused New Guinea of "orgies of cannibalism" and insulted both Portsmouth and Liverpool - the latter offence prompting Michael Howard to force an apology, even though, as editor of the Spectator, Mr Johnson had not personally penned the offending editorial.

As motoring columnist for GQ magazine Mr Johnson has also committed to print his full share of sexist remarks, referring to a sports car he test-drove as "the swishest, fastest, most chick-pulling Lotus ever devised", while in a Ferrari he felt that "the whole county of Hampshire was lying back and opening her well-bred legs to be ravished by the Italian stallion".

So, what do we learn from this? Well, we learn that the people at Compass are a humourless, censorious, bunch of PC neo-Bowdlerists, and that Boris Johnson is rather more sensible on most issues than the average Cameronite. Speaking for myself, after reading this summary of the dossier's contents, I feel rather more pro-Johnson than I did previously.

I have written about the attacks made on Johnson by the PC left before, and my views remain the same as they were then: he may be far from being an ideal mayor, but he would certainly be an immense improvement on Livingstone. For this reason, I would certainly give him my second preference vote, and urge others to do the same.