personal notes

Boris on Question Time

Watch Question Time this Thursday 4th March on BBC 1 at 10.35pm
Question Time, the BBC’s premier political debate programme comes from Canary Wharf this week.  David Dimbleby will be joined in London by Boris Johnson, Liberal Democrat peer Shirley Williams, broadcaster Carol Vorderman, the novelist Will Self and the Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.
Question Time will [...]


The Prime Minister’s Behaviour

With apologies to Tennessee Ernie Ford, let’s have another little song thanks to Dungeekin
New Labour’s legacy is money and blood,
Under them this country has been dragged through the mud,
The damage began with Grinning Tone,
Now the PM’s weak and it’s all gone wrong,


Gordon Brown and Alternative Voting

Downing Street has admitted “time is tight” to get laws for a referendum on scrapping Britain’s first past the post voting system through Parliament.  Gordon Brown wants to replace it with “alternative vote,” where candidates are ranked in order of preference.  The Prime Minister says this is a better way of choosing MPs but the [...]


Billy Bragg to withhold taxes in bank bonus row

Singer-songwriter and political activist says he is ‘no longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers’.  Read the story here.
Boris quote on the tax on bank bonuses:  “The Government is doing nothing more than fast-tracking the departure of this talent pool out of Britain”.
Here, with a satirical twist, is Dungeekin with his [...]


Merry Christmas 09

Guido is like Santa Claus, or so he claims.  See his very funny video with top ten political moments here
And further satire from our resident friend Dungeekin here
Inspired by Dungeekin is a brilliant ’cheery Christmas Song’ by Man Widdicombe here or with the lyrics here


The Challenge of Housing and Homelessness

Guest Blog by raincoaster - presenting a challenge
“The view is more beautiful now that it is mine.” Ran
I can be challenging. Boris knows it, Melissa knows it, the nation of Albania knows it, I know it, you know it (well you know now, don’t you?). So I’d like to put this inherent challengenosity (a raincoasterism) of [...]


Jo Johnson is the Candidate for Orpington

Boris’s brother has just won the selection to stand in the safe Conservative seat of Orpington where the current MP, John Horam, is standing down.
Stanley, his father, recently described him as “taller and blonder than Boris” and he is the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief.  Based in New Delhi since January 2005, he leads [...]


What David Cameron can learn from Boris

By special request

To follow is the recent article in The Spectator I know many of you will find of interest and relevance.  Can the Cameroons really learn anything from Boris?  Look forward to hearing your views.

Boris says what he thinks almost without thinking. Cameron’s pronouncements are carefully calibrated. Work on Cameron’s conference speech began in [...]


Ancient Greece : Index

Lessons of the Past
Boris Johnson has spoken of the contribution a knowledge of the classics can make to understanding our own times. In the modern political world — as in the ancient — the same theme is played out again and again … with the same characters : political leaders that let power go to [...]


Ancient Greece : Pericles (Part III)

Boris Johnson has often spoken of his love of Greek history and of Pericles in particular. When asked who his historical pin-up was and why, he replied: “Pericles. Look at his Funeral Speech: democracy; freedom — champion stuff.” — Read the full interview.

A few years ago he went to the British Museum and bought [...]