In the News...
9th May 2008
Boris Johnson
This week the newly elected Boris Johnson officially takes on the role of Mayor of London, ending Ken Livingstone’s eight-year tenure of the post.
Who is he?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in 1964 in New York City to English parents (until recently he was a US citizen). His early education took place in Brussels and East Sussex, after which he won a scholarship to Eton. He studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union.
Boris Johnson’s career in journalism began with a traineeship at The Times but nearly came to a premature end when he was sacked for blatantly misquoting his godfather, historian Colin Lucas. Despite this gaffe, however, he was taken on by The Daily Telegraph in 1988 and became its assistant editor in 1994. In 1999 he left to become editor of The Spectator and proceeded to boost its circulation significantly.
Despite having told The Spectator’s proprietor, Conrad Black, that he would give up his political ambitions in order to be the paper’s editor, in 2001 Boris Johnson stood as the Conservative candidate for Henley-on-Thames and was elected as MP. He became the party’s joint vice-chairman in 2003 and was appointed shadow minister for the arts in 2004. However, his journalistic and political commitments were not always compatible and he was fired from the Conservative front bench following ill-judged remarks in a Spectator editorial about Liverpool, which were compounded by allegations about his private life. He was reinstated to the shadow cabinet as higher education spokesman in 2005 on the condition that he resign from his post at The Spectator, which he duly did. He remained in his shadow cabinet role until being persuaded to stand for London Mayor.
As well as working in journalism and politics, Boris Johnson has written several books including the novel Seventy-Two Virgins (2004) and an anthology of his political writings, Have I Got Views for You (2006). He has made several appearances on the satirical television news quiz Have I Got News for You, both as a panellist and a guest host.
He said...
"My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive".
In The Observer, 20 June 2004
Did you know...
Although he is publicly known as Boris Johnson or even just ‘Boris’, his family still know him by his first name and call him ‘Al’.
