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Mayor Boris? He’s more like a Boswell than a Johnson
FOR the past five years, ever since he decided to write a biography of Mayor Boris Johnson, Andrew Gimson has had to persuade friends and loved ones he is still in his right mind.
Even Boris, the one person you might consider to be supportive, offered him £100,000 not to bother.
Gospel Oak resident Mr Gimson, the parliamentary sketch writer for the Daily Telegraph (to which the mayor also contributes), spoke about playing Boswell to Boris’s Johnson at a fundraiser for the Heath Library.
“In June 2004,
sensibly minded people thought Boris was a complete clown that wouldn’t amount to anything,” Mr Gimson said.
Now, Mr Gimson told me, those same detractors were noticeably mute.
“Particularly with getting rid of the Met Police Commissioner, Boris has really come of age,” he said. “Lots of people said they would leave London if he became mayor but there has been no mass exodus.”
Having been initially keen on the book, Boris then pleaded with Mr Gimson not to write it, on the grounds that “anything that purported to tell the truth really would be intolerable”.
Boris switched tack when Mr Gimson published the book, even supporting it in his own idiosyncratic way – he turned up at the launch of Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson and wrote “This book is rubbish” beside his signature in every copy.
So how Johnson is Johnson?
“Both Johnsons loved London and classics, but Dr Johnson was much more censorious,” said Mr Gimson. “Boris might actually be more like Boswell: a brilliant journalist who was always running after women. ”
Even a Holocaust denier must have his say
THAT daring film maker Rex Bloomstein must have sighed with relief during the showing of his latest documentary An Independent Mind on Tuesday evening.
The last time the film was shown in December picket lines were drawn up in protest from the British Board of Jews and the Anti-Fascist Alliance.
But the 90-minute film, shown at the British Library following a debate on free speech, didn’t raise a peep from the audience.
Bloomstein, who lives in Hampstead, has earned a reputation since the 1970s as one of Britain’s most challenging film-makers through TV documentaries on anti-semitism, the Holocaust, prisoners of conscience and life behind bars.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Bloomstein interviewed eight men and women in different countries who have all espoused unpopular causes – hated by their governments or their compatriots.
The “stars” of his film were a cartoonist in Algeria, a Chinese woman blogging about her sexual exploits, comedians jailed in Burma, a jailed and tortured Syrian now a refugee in Sweden, a Basque punk band, a protest reggae singer in the Ivory Coast, a journalist in Guatemala – and the Holocaust denier, historian David Irving
And it was the 10 minute interview with Irving that had brought out angry anti-racist pickets and members of the British Board of Jews.
Clearly upset, Bloomstein, honoured and respected as a film-maker of conscience, couldn’t conceal his annoyance that he, of all people, should have been targeted by the British Board of Jews!
Though he didn’t need to say it, he obviously loathes the views of David Irving – jailed in Austria for denying the holocaust – but to him it is important his views should be heard. To shut him out, Bloomstein argues, is “the slippery slope of censorship”.
His fellow panellists – Peter Tatchell, Indian journalist Salil Tripathi and Lida Appagnanesi – agreed that views however obnoxious should be heard.
Police night shift had a riot of a time
BOYS will be boys, even when they’re in blue.
Primrose Hill was packed with snow-lovers when it got a 2.30am visit from the Old Bill on Monday morning. One reader described what happened next: “Around 15 police officers turned up with riot shields. Everyone wondered what was going on. The officers then proceeded to use the riot shields to sledge down the hill... Amazing, and to top it all off they allowed other people to use them...”
I’m told that this squad of response officers was not the only one to tackle the pistes.
Who knew that was what riot shields were really for?
Private meeting plots a housing U-turn – but is it too late?
AN extraordinary turn-around in government policy on council housing appeared to be signalled last night (Wednesday) following a private meeting in the Commons involving minister Margaret Beckett and several Labour MPs, I can reveal.
Among the MPs were Austin Mitchell, Michael Meacher, Kelvin Hopkins and Frank Dobson.
It is understood Beckett was “sympathetic” to the idea that councils should be better funded to repair local authority housing while funds could be siphoned off to allow “new builds” to go ahead.
First, there would have to be “consultations” but this was regarded as a “formality”. By spring or early summer, everything could be in place, I gather, for the new policy to be put in motion.
But some MPs were concerned that too much delay would harm Labour’s chance for re-election.
After the one-hour private meeting it was agreed, I understand, that to speed things up, Gordon Brown should now be asked to see the same MPs for what could become final discussions on what represents a volte-face in government policy.
In a recent statement Gordon Brown appeared to some MPs to remain “ambiguous” on the next step forward. But last night MPs found Beckett “upbeat” as if the campaign started more than a year ago now has the ear of the Prime Minister.
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