Boris Makes It Up – Again

London’s occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was invited on to The Andy Marr Show (tm) yesterday, where he demonstrated not only that he had not bothered to spend more than, oh I dunno, thirty seconds or so researching and collecting his thoughts, but also that he will say anything to cause the press to continue their fawning adoration of him.

Bozza demonstrates his preferred kind of quota

This has continued today, with the Maily Telegraph, where Bozza’s weekly “chicken feed” generating column has been promoted to front page news. “Boris calls for quotas on EU migrants” it proclaims, to which I call bullshit. Bozza is only in favour of such ideas if it allows him to generate More And Bigger Headlines For The Political Advantage Of Himself Personally Now.

He knows full well that there is very little of the EU where there is any control on the free movement of labour, and even then, this is part of transitional arrangements for new member states. Free movement is one of the cornerstones of the free market, and is not going to be compromised at the whim of one principle-free opportunist, even if he is able to play the clown convincingly.

And that wasn’t the only thing that Bozza was inventing yesterday morning on the Marr Show: the ludicrous state of London’s housing market was mentioned, and as so often, Bozza had to resort to saying things that are not true to get through his answer. He blustered about building hundreds of thousands of new dwellings. But the real problem is in “affordable” homes.

He’s going to miss his comparatively modest target: “Figures from the Homes for London board said that 52,749 homes will be built from April 2011 to March 2015”. And then pretend otherwise: “Board papers from the London Homes Board reveal that the mayor is set to build 55,000 homes, but the target would be fulfilled by December 2015 and would include 1,400 homes not funded by GLA money”.

How full of crap is Bozza? How about “Boris Johnson says Britain ‘betrayed’ the Commonwealth by joining the European Union, and should ‘intensify’ ties with countries such as Australia”. Where did he say that? On a visit to, er, Australia. He soft-soaped folks in Crystal Palace this year over extending Tramlink there, and for the third time he was talking out of the back of his neck.

He said in the run-up to the last Mayoral election that he would not order new Tube trains with cabs – well, perhaps he can wriggle out of this by deferring the order until after he leaves office – only for TfL to admit that all new Tube trains will indeed have cabs, and until 2030 at the earliest. Does anyone see a pattern here? A pattern of saying whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear?

And yet there are some who still humour this charlatan. More fool them.