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Boris Johnson 'seeks Murdoch's help in Tory leadership bid'
Will they never learn? Telegraph claims Boris and Rupert have discussed how his candidacy might be promoted
BORIS JOHNSON has invited Rupert Murdoch and Wendy Deng, the Kung Fu specialist and wife number three of the octogenarian media mogul, to be his guests at the Olympics as part of the London Mayor's bid for his own personal gold - the leadership of the Tory Party.
This is not a plot from some fantasy novel but comes this morning from the respected blog of the deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph, Ben Brogan, causing consternation among the summer shifters still in Downing Street.
"He [Boris] met Rupert Murdoch recently to discuss how his candidacy might be promoted, and has invited the media tycoon to join him at the Olympics,"
Brogan confided. "It is said that Mr Murdoch wants to get rid of Mr Cameron. Westminster has noted The Sun¹s growing enthusiasm for Boris, and how it contrasts with the vitriol the newspaper now reserves for Messrs Cameron and Osborne."
This may strike some Mole readers as odd. Especially after the Leveson inquiry revealed the cringe-making lengths Cameron went to in order to get Murdoch's support, including riding a police horse with Rebekah Wade, the Murdoch executive facing a charge of perverting the course of justice. Will they never learn?
Apparently not. Boris may be seen as a buffoon, but he is deadly serious and has a popular touch. It takes a particular talent to rubbish Mitt Romney and get 60,000 people chanting "Boris, Boris" in Hyde Park.
The threat could be brushed aside by Team Camo - Boris has yet to get a Westminster seat and has some years yet to run as Mayor - except for the fact that the money men are backing Boris, who was seen schmoozing with hedge fund managers at an awards dinner.
"Conservative donors have had enough, and are lining up behind the London Mayor," says Brogan. "In City terms, the money men are shorting the Tory leadership."
Cameron is increasingly seen as a loser. The PM has even admitted as much to his friends. One line in the Brogan blog caused such raised eyebrows it was retweeted by one of his rivals, Tim Shipman, deputy political editor of the Daily Mail. It is this: "David Cameron is on course to lose the next election, and his leadership, and he knows it. He has admitted as much to friends, who are even now using the summer weeks to debate what might be done to get the Prime Minister out of his difficulties..."
The fact that this has appeared in the house newspaper of the Tory right will raise suspicions within Team Camo that the Telegraph, where Boris has a weekly column, is part of a Tory plot to get rid of Cameron who is now seen by business leaders as another Ted Heath: he started well, but lost his way, and deserted true blue Tory policies, in Cameron's case by selling out to the Lib Dems in the coalition.
Cameron is apparently using the distraction of the Olympics to scratch around for a master plan to scatter his critics in a fightback this autumn.
It all depends on the economy being turned around and for that he has to rely on his hapless Chancellor George Osborne, who has as much chance of succeeding there as he has of beating Usain Bolt in the 100 metres final.
But how will Boris's supporters feel about him flirting with Rupert? The City boys might not give a damn, but the rest of us thought we'd sent the Murdochs packing. The realities of a Boris bid for the Tory leadership may yet be the blonde bombshell's undoing. ·
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How very cosy! the one thing you seem to forget is that "Camo" is in a coalition annd thus limited
It's quite touching that, whatever he thinks of 'the English', Murdoch can still find time to pick our rulers. Of course, Murdoch hired Cameron in the first place, so why shouldn't he fire him?
As for Boris--now that he has all those hedge fund managers on board, all he needs to complete his dream team are Dob Diamond, Fred Goodwin and Jimmy Carr.
More speculative rubbish from the media served up as factual news. There's not a shred of hard evidence in support of this story.
You know what short memories people have, always hankering after something different to the current lot. They can't stand technocratic, managerial politicians who are also incompetent and do not represent Joe Public at all; Boris appears to be a break from that. He can laugh at himself, a very useful Britsh trait, and symbolises the affable, bumbling Britsh toff that most of the rest of the world think we are anyway.
Let's clean up MP's expenses, phone hacking and the banks, and then focus on getting away from our ridiculously over-sensitive, prickly, censorious society (often media-led, but not always) which contradicts what I understand to be free speech. Boris is the figurehead for that. Also, by training the public to get used to his gaffes now, there will be no surprises when in office. Hmmm... what's wrong with saying the wrong thing, exactly? Politicians are attacked for being sub-human, and then their all-too-human remarks and mistakes are over-scrutinised, particularly for who it may have caused offence to, often to gain short-term, pointless political advantage (where the party expressing moral indignation or outrage conveniently forgets it may have done or would do the same).
People also hate politicians pretending to be something /
somebody they're not (e.g. Edward "man of the people" Millibandroid, Dave "I take the tube, me when I'm not cycling to work" Cameron, Tony "I saw Jackie Milburn" Bliar). We rarely get to see behind the Oxbridge-educated, policy wonkish, career politician exterior (but may not like it if we did!!) That's why the Dear Leader's "bigoted woman" slip was so telling - free from spin, we saw His true face, and one of the many ways in which the Labour party was disconnected from the electorate.
Finally, Boris would do a better job of uniting his fractious party than Call Me Dave (who modelled everything on Bliar, and most of his backbenchers hated him, too). Time will tell if getting Rupert onside is a good move or not.
By the way, I don't particularly like Boris, who may turn out to be Anthony Eden without the diplomacy. I just think there's an alternative to how the left lazily and contemptuously try to show any right-wing person as stupid, dangerous, extremist or clownish. The adversarial nature of Britsh politics makes both those on the left and right look with only one eye or think with half of their brain. That's one of the ways politics can be said to be faith-based, where any evidence to the contrary is summarily dismissed. The more extreme the faith, from Islamism to Communism, the angrier and more violent its supporters get.