poor little rich boy....

I can't quite believe either the fuss or excitement that has greeted the mayor of London's appearance on Eastenders this evening.



The BBC has come under fire for apparently showing political favouritism by allowing Boris to appear when they consistently rejected his predecessor's requests to show his face in the Queen Vic. Naturally, Ken Livingstone is not amused:

"There has obviously been a Damascene conversion here ... There is no reason why the BBC should not give the mayor a cameo appearance; I just wish they would do it for everybody, not just their chosen favourites."

Having just watched his stilted, awkward appearance that was clumsily and embarrassingly set up by the cast beforehand, I can't really see why Ken would be getting so agitated about the whole thing.

"...I'm going to have a pint of bitter."
"...Please call me Boris."

Awful. Predictably awful.

Still, Boris is always going to be something of an unlikely man of the people, isn't he? Eton, Oxford, Bullingdon club and all.....



David Cameron, the leader of the opposition and likely future Prime Minister of this country, is number 2, and Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, is number 8.

[for completeness: 1.Sebastian Grigg, 2. David Cameron 3. Ralph Perry Robinson 4. Ewen Fergusson 5. Matthew Benson 6. Sebastian James 7. Jonathan Ford 8. Boris Johnson 9. Harry Eastwood]

What the hell has happened to the Conservative Party? In the party leadership elections of 1990, Douglas Hurd was widely ridiculed as a "toff". His background at Eton and Oxford was a positive disadvantage as the - definitely less experienced and arguably far less accomplished - John Major swept to power. Nowadays, it seems that Eton and Oxford are prerequisites for a role on the Conservative front bench.

I realise that the Labour Party have made an awful lot of people very angry and have hardly set the world alight recently, but let's take a closer look at the alternative:



Come on. Seriously?

Who do you think is best qualified to run the economy? Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling, two men who have been credited by the leaders of the major world powers with taking decisive action to save the world's economy*, or the man in the far right of that picture above - George Osbourne?

* Let's not probe that claim too deeply, but it is something that people are saying....

For the record, the other people in that photograph are:

1: THE HON LUKE BRIDGEMAN - Second son of the 3rd Viscount Bridgeman, he became heir after the death of his older brother. Works for a private equity firm.

2: NAT ROTHSCHILD - The only son of Jacob Rothschild and heir to a £750million fortune. After turning his back on alcohol he made a second fortune in his own right with the £11bn Atticus hedge fund. Links to Peter Mandelson and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska under scrutiny.

3: IFTY RIAZ - According to the Daily Mail, "Believed to have moved abroad". But he was always the odd one out in this company, eh?

4: GEORGE LATHAM - Sandhurst. Now a senior fund manager of Henderson's Global Care Income fund.

5: BARON LUPUS VON MALTZAHN - From a prominent German family. A relative of Baron Bruno Schroder, owner of Schroder private bank. Now a senior manager for a consulting firm and lives in London.

6: LORD ALEXANDER HOPE - Son of the 4th Marquess of Linlithgow, his family seat is Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh. Left merchant banking to enter the art world. Now director of UK business development for Christies.

7: GEORGE OSBORNE - The Shadow Chancellor is the eldest son of baronet Sir Peter Osborne, the founder of wallpaper merchants, Osborne & Little

I'm all too aware that similar photos were taken of some of my contemporaries at school.... But I can't imagine (or would care to imagine) any of those people running the country either.

**shudder**

I guess we get the politicians we deserve, eh? I make it a point of principle to vote in every election, but this time around, I'm really struggling to know what to do: I'm not sure I want to vote Labour, but it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for this shower of shit. It's probably just as well that my vote is likely to be utterly redundant as Ken Clarke holds onto his extremely safe seat.....

It's been said before, but the Labour Party are likely to have plenty of time to rue the fact that Tony Blair's greatest legacy may well turn out to be David Cameron.....

But then again......as Tony Blair's background is Durham Chorister School, Fettes College and Oxford University, you might well wonder what the difference between them is anyway.

2010 election? Different result, same old shit.

Grrr.