BORIS Johnson has provided Britain with plenty of entertainment over the past two decades, from his apparently bumbling early appearances on Have I Got News For You to dangling from a zipwire during the London Olympics and body-checking a 10-year-old boy during a rugby match in Japan.
The Old Etonian has carefully and cynically constructed the persona of loveable buffoon while simultaneously singing the praises of Margaret Thatcher and some of the worst of the Tories’ “nasty party” policies. And somehow he has not only got away with it, but he also persuaded London voters to elect him as their mayor.
Now he’s backing a Brexit, a position that will come as no surprise to anyone given his well-documented euroscepticism and is made all the more convenient by the fact that he has his eye on David Cameron’s job.
One thing is now certain – the EU referendum campaign will not be dull. But anyone expecting to hear Boris rambling about bent bananas or the right to dip bread in olive oil in restaurants has underestimated the man, who in reality is the exact opposite of bumbling. He is calculating, clever and – perhaps most crucially – fuelled by a sense of entitlement and superiority so outrageous that it’s easily mistaken for a joke.
It’s fair to say that most people would be a little humbled to be sacked from their very first job for making things up. Not Johnson – he simply moved from The Times to The Daily Telegraph, which lapped up his anti-EU propaganda despite his fellow Brussels journalists accusing him of getting up to his old tricks. It’s little wonder Johnson feels following the rules is for mere mortals. When he relays his childhood ambition to become “world king” it’s with pride, not embarrassment, and the public react by wanting to ruffle his blonde mop.
Perhaps some supporters of Scottish independence will be wishing Johnson well with his campaign. If he persuades the English but not the Scots then independence will surely follow.
But whatever the outcome on June 24, it is a tragedy for the UK that this vitally important debate will be dominated by a pair of old Bullingdon Club chums competing for a job.
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