Jonathan Todd

The video of the Spectator/Threadneedle Awards is fun and worth watching. It features a classy speech from Politician of the Year, Peter Mandelson, who said that he shares with Boris Johnson, who presented him with the award, ”a driving ambition to do all we can to undermine David Cameron.” This brought roars of protest from Boris. Perhaps, as Lord Mandelson said, these protests were a little too loud, not least given what could be read into the sub-text of the speech which Mayor Johnson had earlier given on the same stage.

He referred to wisteria in the midst of a riff on MPs expenses. Now just as clearly as porno video equals Mr. Jacqui Smith, so wisteria brings to mind the leader of the opposition. May be, I’m just being paranoid on Dave’s behalf, but, quite possibly, Boris is doing his bit to try to keep alive this unfavourable image of Dave.

Should Boris fulfil what we are to take as his long term ambition, to succeed Dave as Tory leader, the bedrock of his support is likely to come from those Tory MPs who were annoyed by Cameron’s alleged double standards and poor handling of the MPs’ expenses scandal. So, Boris’ wisteria reference is a shout-out to those MPs; a not so subtle “I am your man.” Yes, somewhat less mega-phone and more subtle than the same such shout-out that Boris gave at Tory Party Conference with his remarks on the Lisbon Treaty. But a shout-out, nonetheless. And a rubber ring for himself; a rubber ring to carry his not inconsiderable girth from where he is now (City Hall) to where he wants to be (Number 10 or at least the Tory leadership). 

At the award ceremony, the Newcomer of the Year, Ken Clarke, described where Boris is now as “the world of buses and bus lanes.” When his current station is put like that, despite affording him the third largest personal mandate in Europe after the French and Portuguese presidents, it is easy to understand why Boris grasps for that rubber ring. After all, any man using a bus over the age of 25 is a failure.

The stage of Brixton Academy has been the pinnacle of many careers but on that stage last Monday night, for People’s Question Time, Boris didn’t cut the figure of someone who has achieved any kind of pinnacle. Indeed, it often seemed so much of a chore for the Mayor. Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone, unlike Boris and Dave, share little in terms of background and inclinations, but when Ken was Mayor they formed a great working relationship. This might be because Blair was confident throughout that Livingstone wasn’t after his job and had achieved his pinnacle. The same can’t be said of Boris and Dave.  Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but a war that began on those same fields has many more bus lanes and rubber rings to travel before it reaches its (inevitably bloody) conclusion.