One of the irritating things about Boris Johnson is that you sense under the surface that the buffoonery is just a flinty-eyed career strategy, a little tactical clowning to butter up the punters and enliven the usual prehensile manoeuvres.
As far as mayoral buffoonery goes, it is to Toronto we must look for the real thing in the person of Rob Ford. The crack smoking will surely be the climax of his career, but my favourite of these escapades is when he had to be restrained by the cops from driving the kids to Florida at five in the morning while drunk. There’s something very country and western about that.
One must congratulate the people of Toronto for the clever way in which they have protected themselves from an exuberant psychopath by electing him mayor; that way he is surrounded by armed men in public and your chances of running into him in a bar are minimised. Though, clearly, he gets off the reservation sometimes.
I'm reminded of Washington DC's former "mayor-for-life" Marion Barry, who managed to get caught in a drugs sting smoking crack, and whose comment at the time was 'Bitch set me up!'. After doing his time, he still managed to get re-elected as mayor, and is currently a city councilman...
Posted by: Jakob | May 20, 2013 at 10:46 PM
I have to admit Ford tops my former MP, Rahim Jaffer.
Posted by: Lex | May 21, 2013 at 09:06 AM