You can’t help but admire someone who backs a cause likely to bite them squarely on the bottom at a later date, can you?
This week, Boris has played the role of a turkey voting for Christmas by backing the editor of the Daily Mail’s view that press restriction should be kept to a minimum. Paul Dacre, the editor of that turgid little rag fine, upstanding newspaper, made a stirring speech last week in which he questioned the motives of David Cameron and other politicians for wanting to tighten rules on press reporting.
‘Am I alone,’ he said, ‘in detecting the rank smells of hypocrisy and revenge in the political class’s current moral indignation over a British Press that dared to expose their greed and corruption.’
And now, Boris has sided with Dacre, which is perhaps an odd stance for a man whose private life has been subject to a fair bit of press intrusion over the years….
According to the Daily Mail, ‘Boris Johnson made a passionate defence of press freedom…saying the right of newspapers to say ‘very rude things’ about public figures has protected democracy.
‘But the Mayor insisted that the media has a right to upset public figures because openness encourages honesty and stamps out corruption in public life.
‘Speaking at a Westminster lunch, he said: ‘People looking at London see a society that is as honest as anywhere in the world – thanks very largely to the very rude things the media says about so many people.’
Gulp. He’d better behave himself in future, we think….