Don't forget to vote in the "what is Boris anyway?" poll.
I agree with bgprior - Boris is a sharp cookie and is playing the rest of us for the fool. His blog is excellent (if only it were updated more often) and his knowledge on a range of subjects is of the highest order. He is also his own man and not afraid to speak out - hence he is often lampooned in the media yet at the same time he is loyal to old school pal Dave. He is trapped in no man's land - if left to himself I believe he would be a individualist, but he is too loyal to the party to really express this. If you look at his voting record on Theyworkforyou.com, it gives you a little insight in to his political beliefs:
- Moderately against introducing a smoking ban.
- Moderately against introducing ID cards.
- Quite strongly against introducing foundation hospitals.
- Quite strongly against introducing student top-up fees.
- Moderately against Labour's anti-terrorism laws.
- Very strongly for the Iraq war.
- Moderately for investigating the Iraq war.
- Very strongly against the fox hunting ban.
- A mixture of for and against equal gay rights.
I voted for Individualist, but as it's Boris, I reckon we give him his own category.
Comments
Yes, but...
Definitely his own man, but is that consistent or confused ideosyncracy?
I might have voted for individualist too, until I saw what he had to say on his own brief (Higher Education). As you say, he is against student top-up fees. And he appears to be in favour of pumping more money into HE generally. I'm not particularly a fan of the top-up fees structure, but there seems to be a strong suggestion in Boris's thinking that the state should be picking up the tab for a further expansion of HE. I'm sure, in his dreams, that expansion will consist of thousands taking up the Classics, rather than Sociology and Media Studies, but dream on Boris - most of those who currently don't make the very generous cut for entry to HE have probably no interest in Rome, let alone care what it has to teach us about modern life. And frankly, I'm glad they don't. The world would be no better if we had a surfeit of classicists than if we had a surfeit of plumbers.
Like Bentham said, "Quantity of pleasure being equal, pushpin is as good as poetry". I have a feeling that Boris would prefer John Stuart Mill's patrician distinction between the "higher" and "lower" pleasures. I may be wrong, but there's enough doubt there for a "don't know". Which category of "don't know" was a real dilemma, though. I've given him the benefit of the doubt, for now.