POLITICS: Boris Good Enough in London
Fund, John H.
P o L I T I c s Boris Good Enough in London by John H. Fund hat is the most satisfying part about London— of all places—ousting its Labour Party mayor and electing a politically...
...Critics lambasted him for some of his politically incorrect statements such as encouraging people to call the overweight “fatso...
...Last year, he concluded a deal with Hugo Chavez by which the Venezuelan strongman now ships oil for London’s buses at a 20 percent discount, allowing a special cut in fares for London’s welfare-eligible population...
...He also called for peeling away the excesses of multiculturalism that had Livingstone passing out grants to lesbian dance collectives while at the same time defending a local Muslim cleric, Yusuf al-Quaradawi, who supported wife-beating and the execution of gays...
...With the election of Boris Johnson, a staunch antiCommunist, you can bet those plans are heading for the dustbin of history.* The political earthquake of early May that swept Johnson into office with 53 percent of the vote, and also elected a Conservative local city council along with him, can be compared to the voter revolts of the 1990s that led New York and Los Angeles to elect Republican mayors...
...In reality, Johnson has a keen mind from his days as 4 6 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R J u n e 2 0 0 8 J o H n H . f u n D a classics scholar at Oxford...
...The American Spectator’s 2008 Catalyst Essay Series: individual liberty not only in Western society but in the rest of the world...
...Behind all the charm and self-deprecation is a hard-line agenda of the right...
...A few months ago no one would have given Johnson a chance to defeat the two-term mayor...
...Johnson will now share with Tory leader David Cameron the spotlight as the two most prominent Conservative politicians in Britain...
...Well, Mayor Ken Livingstone, known as “Red Ken” for his avowedly socialist beliefs, had announced plans to honor the 50th anniversary of Communist Cuba’s revolution on January 1, 2009, with a week-long series of street parties and a celebration of Fidel Castro’s life in Trafalgar Square...
...See the Continuing Crisis (p...
...The public also finally wearied of the mayor’s political antics...
...On the one hand, he warned voters that despite his winning personality, Johnson was a dangerous reactionary...
...A frequent guest on TV game shows, where he adopted the manner of someone who resembled P. G. Wodehouse’s flighty Bertie Wooster character, he was “a bonking comedian masquerading as a politician,” critics charged...
...The Future of Individual Liberty – Elevating the Human Condition and Overcoming the Challenges to Free Societies Seamus Hasson “The Myth: Is there Religious Liberty in America...
...But johnson was also capable of spot-on social feat of breeding suicide bombers determined to attack the very society that incubated them...
...Should he govern London successfully, it will be a further blow to the Labour government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which backed Livingstone to no avail and on the same night as Johnson won was badly beaten in local elections across Britain...
...After the London suicide bombers blew up buses and subways in 2005, he observed that his country “has pulled off the rare explained that “we no longer make any real demands that wine could go to your head...
...It’s pure social engineering in order to get people in boxy buses,” American expatriate Steve Masty told me...
...For those voters who didn’t buy that, Livingstone had his allies make fun of Johnson’s disheveled appearance and comically uncombed hair...
...But Johnson zeroed in on the growing fear of crime and public anger over *Spectator exclusive: Boris Johnson, former editor of the Spectator of London, is an American citizen...
...In 2006 Livingstone was suspended from office for four weeks for comparing a Jewish journalist from a conservative paper to a Nazi war criminal and a concentration camp guard...
...But it was Johnson who had the last laugh...
...It is a cultural calamity that will take decades to reverse, and we must begin now with what I call the reBritannification of Britain...
...In return, London will provide tourism advice to Venezuela...
...An economic boom has made London a vibrant city, Livingstone helped steer the Olympics to London in 2012, and unemployment is low...
...As a journalist, Johnson was a master of the bon mot...
...Boris is the most dangerous right-wing politician we face,” he told the New Yorker...
...Johnson ran on a campaign to get tougher on crime, withdraw free transit rights from people who abuse them, and give better value for the high taxes Londoners pay...
...Paul Johnson “Freedom and Property” The American Spectator is publishing a series of articles on the components of individual liberty, how freedom evolved in the West, and the future of Anne Applebaum “The Fate of Individual Liberty in Post-communist Europe” Rémi Brague “Liberty, Secular Government and the Western Inheritance” Robert Bork “Individual Liberty as the Constitution Understands It” Robert P. George “Academic Freedom and What it Means Today” Christina Hoff Sommers “The Emancipation of Women: True and False Perspectives” Pierre Manent “Liberal Democracy and the Nation State” Brian Anderson “Freedom and the City” Roger Scruton “The Limits of Liberty” J u n e 2 0 0 8 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R 4 7...
...While it will be Cameron who will led the Tories into battle in the next general election of 2010, observers have already noted that at age 44 the new mayor of London could have a prominent role in British politics for years to come—perhaps even on the national stage someday...
...In 1999, he became editor of the Spectator, the famous British political magazine...
...Livingstone quickly adopted a two-pronged assault on Johnson as soon as the challenger announced...
...Livingstone’s plans to charge a $50-a-day “congestion fee” for SUVs entering the city center...
...In all that time, no government in history has yet thought the people so moronic that they needed to be told, on the bottle, analysis...
...P o L I T I c s Boris Good Enough in London by John H. Fund hat is the most satisfying part about London— of all places—ousting its Labour Party mayor and electing a politically incorrect Conserv ative...
...In ridiculing plans to put warning labels on wine, he drolly observed, “It is now more than two millennia since people in Britain first became aware of the intoxicating powers of wine...
...John H. fund, The American Spectator’s Politics columnist, is author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books...
...So we have drifted on over the intervening decades, and created a multi- cultural society that has many beauties and attractions, but in which too many Britons have absolutely no sense of allegiance to this country or its institutions...
...When confronted with his lack of management skills, he quickly informed audiences that the Spectator had turned a profit...
...He of loyalty upon those who are immigrants or the House Ad Half Horiz 4/3/08 8:28 PM Page 1 children of immigrants...
Vol. 41 • June 2008 • No. 5
