Jennifer Arcuri And The Bozo Diaries

Hardly has our free and fearless press finished congratulating itself on getting alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson returned to power than another of what Harold Macmillan called “events, dear boy, events” has returned to haunt both of them. While Bozo The Clown tells the world that he has settled down - for the time being - with partner Carrie Symonds, his most notorious past liaison is once more in the news.

And it’s down to the Murdoch Sunday Times, which has been allowed on occasion to publish stories that may not always reflect well on the Tory leader. The paper has revealed that Jennifer Arcuri, who enjoyed a relationship with Bozo when he was the very occasional Mayor of London, kept what is being called an “intimate diary” of their conversations. Moreover, she appears to be casting round for a publisher.

Here’s what she told the ST: “I have about seven years of diary entries, and it’s been fascinating for me to go back and read what I wrote … “Because many times he would call me and I would pick up the phone and write down our entire conversation verbatim … And let’s be very clear here - I don’t have an ode to Boris Johnson, it’s not like I have a diary about Boris, I have a diary about my life. I have over 50 of them”. How many?

Fifty of them. And there is more. “When this was coming out I went back to that diary to see am I just remembering this wrong? Because it’s been a few years and I’ve had a lot of growing up, etc. But there’s very much a story there”. One account adds “The Independent Office for Police Conduct is still considering whether there is sufficient evidence to mount a criminal investigation against Johnson into alleged misconduct in public office”.

Just in case anyone forgot that Bozo managed not to declare his relationship with Ms Arcuri, who was in receipt of significant amounts of money from City Hall funds during the period of that relationship. She is certainly proving persistent, as witness her telling “There is a deeply human side to this - one that will surprise both sides of this divided country. I’ve lived it and since reading back on my diaries I’ve surprised myself how much is there; the real story is nothing like that which the media have printed”.

And following it with “I am exploring the options of what I am prepared to say and share with the world and what I want to keep private. what’s interesting is I’ve kept diaries through all these years and I find that sharing excerpt(s) help put some context to what actually happened”. This gives Bozo’s press cheerleaders a problem.

The story is already out there. If Ms Arcuri publishes in the USA, no amount of legal intervention in this country can stop her. Worse, as we saw with the phone hacking scandal, there is only so much mileage in shouting “non story” before the dam bursts and the whirlwind is reaped. Bozo and his media pals cannot hold this one back forever.

Moreover, it’s not just about a friendship, intimate or otherwise. It’s about, potentially, the ease with which the man who is now Prime Minister can be corrupted, with all the implications that has for national security, especially when his visiting the Lebedev Palazzo without his Metropolitan Police close protection detail is factored in.

Most of all, when it concerns someone so senior, it is vital that our supposedly non-partisan media - hello BBC - reports this one properly. I’ll just leave that one there.

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