Our party political system means that it’s a rare thing for a politician to come out in support of a rival. I don’t recall Mrs Thatcher ever singing the praises of Neil Kinnock or Tony Blair writing effusively about the political motivations of Iain Duncan-Smith.
However, Boris is different. After Nick Clegg’s much derided tuition fee ‘apology’, the Mayor has come out in support of the Liberal Democrat leader, a man who, according to Bozza ‘has endured the most protracted political humiliation since the emperor Valerian was captured by the Persian emperor Shapur, and turned first into a living footstool, and then flayed and used as a rather striking wall hanging.’
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Boris cited 20 reasons why everyone – and not just Conservatives – should be grateful to the man he calls the ‘Cleggster’. These include:
- He takes the abuse from the left-wing educationalists
- When you meet him he is ‘a very nice chap indeed’
- He reads novels
- His wife is ‘every bit as lovely and clever and funny as she appears’
- He is ‘very good at tennis’
- His campaign for the Alternative Vote was ‘hopeless’ meaning we have ‘been spared all sorts of other jobbery and feuding
Hmm. Actually, when you look at it, it’s hardly the most ringing endorsement. And, he acknowledges that ‘The Tories have gone one better than the Persian emperor, in the sense that the Lib Dem leader is not so much a wall hanging as a human shield.’
The Mayor ends with a rallying cry to the nation: “Save the Cleggster from extermination!” Good grief.