It's Official, Hell has Frozen Over.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Agathon
That does a lot to explain this result. I think the Scots will be taking a long look at these local election results. There's no reason for them to be part of a union that is so far to the right of them.

You do know that the SNP is bankrolled by a fundamentalist businessman?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Agathon


They'll be glad to. The Republic of Ireland is already spanking Britain in standard of living. The difference between Dublin and London was marked on my last visit to both places. Part of the reason Scotland does badly and needs that crap is government neglect - the English have exploited and marginalized that country for far too long.

English rule is a cancer (and the rule of faux Scotsmen like Brown is just as bad). Actually let's be fair, southern English rule is a cancer. Northumberland and Cumbria and other areas would be better off going with the Scottish.

If Scotland seceded from Britain, the Scots might find the sudden huge tax hikes somewhat unpalatable without English tax-payers footing the bill.

As for Ireland? Look outside of Dublin and you'll see it still lags a long way behind on a number of national infrastructure issues, even after all those EU subsidies.

[Provost Harrison]

Agathon, shut up. As per usual, you don't have a damn clue what you are talking about

[Dauphin]

Boris has an image of being a bumbling fool, but unlike Bush he is actually a very clever bloke.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Is he really? The fact that he went to a posh school and got a 2:1 doesn't impress me much. I don't rate him as a writer, and regardless of the fact that his IQ is probably above room-temperature level he still has no common sense, has a long track record of dishonesty, and a nasty little line in snobbish denigration of anyone not corresponding to his narrow little boarding school set of values.

Good luck, London.

[C0ckney]

i like boris johnson, he is an intelligent man and i believe he will make a good mayor of london, much to the annoyance of the class warfare types.

he is also about the closest thing you'll get to a libertarian in british politics.

[MarkG]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6901161.stm

Boris Johnson's media scrapes
Conservative MP Boris Johnson, who has been selected as his party's candidate for London mayor, has created plenty of headlines. Here are a few of the controversies:

EARLY DAYS

After graduating in 1987, Mr Johnson became a trainee reporter with the Times newspaper but was sacked within a year for falsifying a quotation from his godfather Colin Lucas.

He described the episode in an interview with the Independent in 2002 as his "biggest ****-up", saying he had needed a historian's quote for a story and had rung Sir Colin - who later became vice-chancellor of Oxford University - and had misquoted him in a way that had jeopardised his academic reputation.

"It was a complete nightmare of a disaster, and to make it even worse, that very week Colin was trying to become master of Balliol College. He later succeeded - but not that time. Of all the mistakes I've made, I think that takes the biscuit," he told the newspaper.

KEN BIGLEY

In October 2004, while editor of The Spectator, Mr Johnson apologised for an unsigned editorial which criticised the city of Liverpool over grief expressed for Ken Bigley - the British contractor who was taken hostage and later killed in Iraq.

Mr Johnson accepted responsibility for the article, which said Liverpudlians "wallow" in their "victim status" and attributed blame to Liverpool football fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

The then Conservative leader Michael Howard ordered him to go to Liverpool to apologise, which he did, to mixed reviews.


SACKED

In November 2004, Mr Howard sacked Mr Johnson from his frontbench team for failing to tell the truth about claims he had had an affair.

But Mr Johnson later told reporters: "I did not mislead Michael Howard."


WRONG CODE

With World Cup fever in the air in May 2006, Mr Johnson took part in an England vs Germany: The Legends game, at Reading's Madejski Stadium.

Coming on as an unlikely "super sub", he used his bulk to floor Germany's bemused Maurizio Gaudino in a rugby-style tackle.

"I'm a rugby player really and I knew I was going to get to him and when he was about two yards away I just put my head down," explained Mr Johnson.

"There was no malice in my actions. I was going for the ball with my head, which I understand is a legitimate move in soccer."


PAPUA NEW GUINEA

In September 2006, Mr Johnson went one better than irritating the people of a city by managing to annoy an entire country.

In a Daily Telegraph column, he wrote: "For 10 years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party."

Papua New Guinea's high commissioner in London was not best pleased by this comparison and demanded an apology.

Mr Johnson obliged, saying: "I meant no insult to the people of Papua New Guinea who I'm sure lead lives of blameless bourgeois domesticity in common with the rest of us."

He promised to "add Papua New Guinea to my global itinerary of apology".


JAMIE OLIVER

At the 2006 Conservative annual party conference, Mr Johnson became the biggest story around when he was quoted as taking a swipe at TV chef Jamie Oliver's campaign to improve school dinners.

He allegedly told a fringe meeting at the Bournemouth event that "if I was in charge I would get rid of Jamie Oliver and tell people to eat what they like".

The MP reportedly stood up for mothers who helped their children avoid healthier options, saying: "I say let people eat what they like. Why shouldn't they push pies through the railings?"

Mr Johnson later claimed he had been misquoted, describing Mr Oliver as a "national saint".


PORTSMOUTH

In April this year, Mr Johnson annoyed Portsmouth councillors by calling the city "one of the most depressed towns in southern England, a place that is arguably too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs", in an article for the men's magazine GQ.

They demanded he apologise and visit the city. But the Conservative Party said figures backed Mr Johnson's comments and politicians should not criticise him for speaking the truth.

Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth South, Mike Hancock, said at the time: "This is simply outrageous and beyond belief. It is an insult to the whole city.

"David Cameron should immediately sack Mr Johnson from his post as a spokesman."

[Dinner]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7376621.stm

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by C0ckney
he is also about the closest thing you'll get to a libertarian in british politics.

Unless the liberty in question involves homosexuality, of course.

[Ben Kenobi]

This is funny.

Glad to see that the Brits are just like the Americans, in this regard, except you are following the trend by several years.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Is he really? The fact that he went to a posh school and got a 2:1 doesn't impress me much.

And rightly so. After all if an American can get into Durham to read English Literature and then spend most of her time not reading English Literature and then still graduate with one of them 2:1 thingies and the "Hons." after her degree letters then pretty much anybody can do it.

...

I speak from pure surmise and hypothesis, naturally.

[Krill]

It's the president of the union soc gig that makes me truely wonder about Boris though. He was judged by at least a few smart people to be better than the other guy, so maybe they picked up on something the rest of us missed...

[Starchild]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia


And rightly so. After all if an American can get into Durham to read English Literature and then spend most of her time not reading English Literature and then still graduate with one of them 2:1 thingies and the "Hons." after her degree letters then pretty much anybody can do it.

...

I speak from pure surmise and hypothesis, naturally.

They give out 2:1s like candy to fat kids.

/me got a First

[Krill]

I need a 2:1 to do any worthwhile job though

[Starchild]

Originally posted by Krill
I need a 2:1 to do any worthwhile job though

For all of ten minutes after graduating. Once that window passes, no one will ever ever ask you what you got for the rest of your life.