Boris Clown Act Flops AGAIN

When London’s increasingly occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson made his decision to campaign for Britain to leave the EU - which wasn’t all about him positioning himself to succeed Young Dave, of course - the Out campaigners must have thought they were on to a winner. There was even talk of a “Boris bounce”. But the bounce never came, and now some Eurosceptics may be experiencing buyer’s regret.

A complete Muppet. And a character from Sesame Street

Bozza has been exposed as having even less substance than was previously thought, and his interview technique - sitting there waving arms and ruffling hair like a sort of upmarket Ken Dodd - is proving disastrous. And there was no more disastrous encounter than when he appeared before the host’s inquisition on The Andy Marr Show (tm) this morning, only to make a significantly sized Horlicks of the whole thing.

It quickly became clear that the usual Bozza bonhomie was not going to cut the mustard, as he waffled and blustered, being caught out misquoting sources and contradicting his earlier position on the European Single Market. He cited German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble twice, but both times Schauble did not say what Bozza suggested. Single Market access meant paying, and signing up to free movement.

He claimed - wrongly - that we had been promised “wholesale change” in our relationship with the EU. He asserted once again that the EU was holding up agreement for safer tipper trucks - the source of several recent cyclist fatalities - but his error was almost immediately flagged up on social media. His claim that the EU tried to make Crossrail’s tunnels larger was pure sophistry - and he is yet to back it up.

It got worse: unlike Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who sticks to his broad brush and his pre-determined list of short, sharp bullet points, delivered loudly and assuredly, Bozza began to shamble into detail, tellingly looking away from Marr, at his feet, at the studio floor, directly at one of the cameras, anything but engage with his host’s gaze. He looked lost, perhaps fearful of being brought back to the point and prevented from waffling.

Bozza claimed it was all about the Eurozone. But, Marr pointed out, we’re not in the Eurozone. Bozza made claims about what the dastardly Eurocrats were really up to. Marr once again pointed out that he’d changed his position on the Single Market. “You’re equivocating” snapped Bozza. “No, I’m not - you are” shot back Marr, who then quoted Schauble correctly. Bozza dismissed this accurate quote as “BBC claptrap”.

Could it get worse still? It certainly could: after Marr introduced the idea of Bozza’s ambition, Johnson claimed too much time was being spent on the subject before denouncing the line of inquiry as “Cobblers”. And after all that waffling, and more looking not at his host, Marr had to call a halt. Farage would have taken a quarter of the time and made his points - valid or otherwise - far more effectively.

Like the pre-General Election chat with Mil The Younger that reduced Bozza to complaining to Marr about where he went to school, this was yet another example of why he is not fit to take over from Cameron. And nor is he fit to front the Leave campaign. He’s also a dead loss as Mayor of London. What, then, is the point of Boris Johnson?