Johnson for Mayor?

As a colleague of mine has said somewhere else - I wouldn't support Johnson as Mayor of Trumpton, let alone London.

Now I don't want to get into personal abuse, tempting though that is. So without straying into any consideration of daft ideas on resurrecting the Routemaster I think it's well worth our time considering just how homophobic he has been in the recent past.

Some of them are helpfully posted on Ken Livingstone's campaign pages and include:

'Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.' (The Spectator 15 April 2000)

‘The essence of that Tory case is unchanged... it is more sensitive to spare parents' anxieties, than to allow Leftwing local authorities to waste taxpayers' money on idiotic and irrelevant homosexual instruction.'

(Daily Telegraph 3 August 2000)

‘Slowly Labour is winning the battle it really cares about, the Kulturkampf, adjusting what can be said, and what cannot be said... Homosexuality is to be taught in schools.'

(The Spectator 29 April 2000)

‘I first met the Bishop [of Liverpool] a few weeks ago at a gloomy convocation of top clergy and journalists in Windsor Castle. The hacks were thin on the ground... I can say that the clerics gave us a wigging for being so mean to the Church of England... Why did we draw attention to tricky subjects like homosexuality, aka the Pulpit Poofs issue?' (The Spectator 16 December 2000)

'If gay marriage was OK - and I was uncertain on the issue - then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.'

(Friends, Voters, Countrymen p96)

‘When the [hunting] ban is blocked in the Lords, as it surely will be, Blair will have his excuse for another attack on the Upper House. If Labour wins the election, Blair will invoke the Parliament Act to sweep aside the opinion of the peers, as he did over homosexual sex at 16, making a mockery of the Lords and consolidating his elective dictatorship.

(Daily Telegraph 18 January 2001)

‘More important, I am not sure how widespread this new right-on mood really is. Metropolitan opinion was wrong-footed over Section 28, where the public thought differently from New Labour; and three days after the event it was clear that the country did not agree with the editorialists on the verdict passed on Tony Martin. You can say that William Hague is opportunist to see the gap between the polite view and the public view. But you can't deny that he is right to go for it.'

(The Spectator 29 April 2000)

He has obviously had to tack his views somewhat for this electorate but his utter contempt for LGBT people is clear and he has refused to apologise for them.

Ken Livingstone's record however is clear, supporting same sex partnerships ahead of the Civil Partnership Act, tackling homophobic bullying ahead of the Government and giving support to a free Pride event in London amongst other things. See also Ken Livingstone's LGBT Manifesto.

It is therefore of the utmost importance that LGBT people mobilise to ensure someone with Boris Johnson's reactionary views is not elected as Mayor of London.

For a flavour of Boris in full flow on his previous support for Section 28 you can see some video footage of the LGBT husting here.

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