Boris has given his first TV interview (albeit an internet one) on the London Mayor race to internet TV station 18 Doughty Street. In it, he defends his past gaffes – “I reserve the right to make gaffes, I really do. I think it is a key thing in politics that people should be able to say what they think and to, er, get themselves into slight trouble from time to time.” Damn right. Also, he digs in on the recent Compass/Ken debacle, putting it better than Boriswatch ever could: “It is a mystery to me why Ken is endlessly diverting his press officers into poring over my articles over the last twenty years in the hope of finding something he can flam up into a story. You should leave your challenger alone is the golden rule of politics, I thought. It’s a mystery… I think they are trying to wind me up. I think someone is trying to wind me up out there. I take it in good part. I think it’s highly flattering that he is obviously so rattled that it is necessary to do this. I don’t think it is going to work but I wish him luck with his current strategy.”
It goes out on 18 Doughty Street at 9pm tonight – and you can watch it online here.
Good interview. I had to watch it on YouTube because their streaming video never stopped buffering and actually ran. It’s funny that they were both mic’ed at the same level, because you can probably hear Boris a solid mile away, upwind, while Iain is so softspoken that I had to guess his questions from Boris’ responses.