Ode to a bicycling politician

England is seen by many as a place where the eccentric are nurtured and protected.  The evidence? Exhibit # 1:  Mr Boris Johnson MP, Member of the House of Commons for the constituency of Henley.

I have been hearing bits and pieces about him lately, and had been forming the view that he appeared to look like an extra from the 1920s Oxford scenes in Brideshead Revisited.

 

But if the quotations attributed to him in the Sydney Morning Herald are any guide, then he should be declared a National Treasure - not because I agree with what he is saying (I would actually be inclined to disagree), but because he is a professional politician who speaks his mind rather than the usual weasel words.

Take, for example, this quotation attributed to him regarding proposed liberalisation of drinking laws in the United Kingdom:

I'm very attracted to it. I may be diverting from Tory party policy here, but I don't care.

Or consider his response to whether he has experimented with non-prescription drugs in his youth.  None of the weasel words of other politicians who duck and weave on this question.  No - our Boris believes that the best defence is verbal distraction:

I think I was once given cocaine but I sneezed so it didn't go up my nose. In fact, it may have been icing sugar.

Any Australian politician who talked like this would be sent to Coventry.  But in England they nurture and support these types.

And the name of his lady friend is straight out of Central Casting (well, the Central Casting equivalent of appropriate names for upper-class English Sloane-ranger types):  Petronella Wyatt.

I mean, what sort of person calls their baby Petronella?  I mean, really.

Mind you, Mr Johnson is not universally admired.

To quote The Scotsman newspaper,

...He was once described by the former Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell as a "great, quivering mass of indecision". More cuttingly, Paul Bigley ... described Johnson as a "self-centred pompous twit" who should "get out of public life". 

Mr Johnson is noted for his preference for bicycle riding around London - a practice that, to me, seems similar to having an ongoing death wish.  In a weblog entry for 2nd August he berates the theft of his bicycle.  This prompts the following response from a reader named "Captain Badger":

On the upside, now you are a victim, I'm sure you qualify for some sort of state sponsored counselling: perhaps an outward bound weekend in Wales, or gender realignment therapy. It's not all bad.

Anyway, cheers to Mr Johnson and long may he ride his bicycle.

• Weblog of Boris Johnson MP