‘Fumbling’ Boris and ‘cyborg’ Arnie make up...

Boris Johnson revealed the deep anxieties within Tory ranks over the Libya offensive when he told BBC's Question Time audience last night that the current bombing campaign could be "inadvertently entrenching support for the mad colonel".

The Mayor of London went on: "I have to say that we have got to be intellectually honest with ourselves.

"I do worry that if we get into a stalemate and if, frankly, the rebels don't seem to be making the progress that we would like, we have to be brave, to say to ourselves that our policy is not working and encourage the Arabs themselves to take leadership in all of this."

It's lucky he didn't come out with these wimpish thoughts earlier in the day when he met former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a photo opportunity in London. As the Mole writes today, the ex-Governator is a big fan of the bombing campaign and accompanied David Cameron to a meeting of Tory backbenchers to tell them "what a great job" they were doing giving Gaddafi what for.

Arnie and Boris's photo op outside City Hall was to further publicise the recently launched bike hire scheme - better known to Londoners as 'Boris bikes'.

It was also a chance for the two men to bury the hatchet after they fell out four years ago. Arnie accused the mayor of "fumbling" a Tory conference address. Johnson responded by dismissing Schwarzenegger as a "monosyllabic Austrian cyborg".

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