The Guardian isn’t the normal place you’d find a little featurette on Boris, but whilst idly waiting for my penne arrabiatta in the Boriswatch canteen the other day, I saw a piece on the Mayor from the news group Reuters.
Following the Mayor on the campaign trail, Bozza was called ‘one of a kind: a Conservative who has turned upper-class English eccentricity into a political asset in a country where being posh is an electoral liability.’
Out and about in Putney, Bozza’s status as a national celebrity is obvious with the feature reporting that people were queuing up for a photo with the mayor. Not everyone’s a fan, though – the piece reports that ‘One passing motorist shouted an expletive at him through his car window, to which the mayor said “thank you” with a regal wave.’
While he portrays this loveable buffoon character, it’s clear Boris takes the job of Mayor very seriously. He told Estelle Shirbon of Reuters: “The truth is the mayoralty is an incredibly serious job, and people don’t feel that you’re taking them seriously unless to some extent you take yourself seriously.”