Murdoch Abandons Boris

If you want to know what Rupert Murdoch thinks, so the old but usually true story goes, read the Sun. And what Creepy Uncle Rupe thinks about one hopeful politician is not quite what that politician wants to hear. The ascent of London’s occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has, as far as the Super Soaraway Currant Bun is concerned, gone quite far enough. How things have changed.

A total muppet. And a Sesame Street character

Early in 2013, the Guardian reported “Rupert Murdoch invited Boris Johnson to a private dinner at his Mayfair home on a recent visit by the tycoon to London, the latest sign of growing intimacy between the media mogul recovering from the phone-hacking storm and the mayor of London – seen as a long-term rival to David Cameron … the proceedings … also attended by London-based Murdoch editors and executives”.

There was more: “It is at least the second time in six months that Murdoch has met the mayor and indicates that the mogul is as keen as ever on nurturing his political contacts in the UK”. We even heard talk of Bozza being considered as an immediate replacement for Young Dave, had May’s General Election been lost. But now, Rupe has seen the rather obvious - that Bozza has been a useless Mayor, and would be a useless PM.

Earlier this week, the piss-poor Sun Nation website told anyone looking in “BORIS’ BID TO BECOME ‘WORLD KING’ HITS THE BUFFERS AFTER STRING OF VANITY PROJECTS … His star is on the wane as political failures catch up with him”. He was only three points in front of Liam Fox in the race to succeed Cameron, which is another way of saying he’s got no chance. The hacks even had a go at his famously unruly hair.

Then came severely adverse comment on his litany of vanity projects: the New Bus For London, that is not a Routemaster, the now officially redundant water cannon, the cable car that has next to no regular users and closes every time the wind gets up, which in London seems to be quite a lot, all were trashed. And all the public money Bozza wants to spray up the wall on the Garden Bridge did not escape scrutiny.

And yesterday came an exasperated rant from pro-am misery man Rod Liddle, who frothed “GREEDY ANTI-SOCIAL UNION PUTS US BACK IN THE 1950S – AND I’M FED UP WITH IT”, blethered about how much Tube drivers are paid, pretended he knew what the job entailed, and failed to be even moderately amusing, before concluding “WHY HASN’T BORIS JOHNSON, THE LONDON MAYOR, SORTED THEM OUT YET?”

Well, quite: Bozza claimed he’d negotiate no-strike deals, but he’s never shown up for a negotiation session. But then, he also claimed he’d never close ticket offices, promised Crystal Palace a Tramlink extension (twice), lied about the capital’s air quality, and screwed over the black cab trade. Now the Dirty Digger has not only decided he’s surplus to requirements, but let it be known in the pages of his favourite UK paper.

The age of Bozza as potential Tory Party leader was for a time, but not for all time.