With all the speculation surrounding Boris’ aspirations towards becoming the leader of the Conservative Party, then Prime Minister and then Supreme Ruler Of The Known Universe it might be appropriate to make a tiny prick to this bubble.
The Children’s Society have published the results of a survey of 1,000 11-25 year olds and their attitudes towards politicians, reports GMTV.
(Incidentally, the GMTV covering article about this matter is so full of inconsistencies and errors, it’s hard to make head nor tail of. The article leads with the statement “As a survey reveals one in ten youngsters think politicians can’t be trusted…” before saying “Only 9% said politicians could be trusted.” Which is it, Ben Shepherd?)
Anyway, the poll also asked the Young People to choose from a list of people they’d like to see as Prime Minister. Unsurprisingly, the most popular (with 30% of the votes) was Stephen Fry (although if you polled a sample of 1,000 Britons of any age, religion or political persuasion you’d get that answer, I reckon). Second was “one of the current leaders of a political party” with Simon Cowell in a well-deserved third place.
However, of the 1,000 votes in the “Who would make the best Prime Minister poll”, Bozza received just two (the same as Tony Blair). Even Richard Branson got five, although nine of the respondents did vote for themselves.
Whilst it might not be a fillip to Boris’ political ambitions, it does appear on the GMTV website which isn’t necessarily the most accurate or highly charged political forum. For balance, consider that the top five searches on the GMTV site (published alongside this research) are for:
“Mother’s Day”, “send flowers”, “Jewellery”, “spa day” and “Buy chocolates”. All the major Westminster issues….
9%! That high!