From The Editor's Chair
Peter Barron was born in Saltburn, and raised in Middlesbrough. He joined The Northern Echo as a reporter in 1984, rising to become the paper's editor in January 1999.
Boring Boris fails the test
WHEN I discovered that I'd be sitting at the
same table as Boris Johnson at a newspaper
conference in London, I was really
quite excited.
This'll be interesting, I thought. Alexander
Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, journalist turned bumbling
politician, Tory candidate to be Mayor of
London, occasional presenter of Have I Got News
For You, and a man who's likely to put his foot in
it any second.
The headlines have come thick and fast with
Boris. Most memorably, he caused grave offence
to Liverpudlians in 2004 by suggesting in an editorial
in The Spectator that they were over-sentimental
and had refused to accept responsibility
for the drunken fans' involved in the Hillsborough
disaster.
He survived that crisis, only to be sacked as vice
chairman of the Conservative Party by Michael
Howard over a four-year affair with The Spectator's
former deputy editor, Petronella Wyatt.
But despite it all, Boris has managed to retain
a great deal of public affection through his boyish
buffoonery. Surely, he'd bound to be good for
a laugh at our table and as the after-dinner speaker,
I thought to myself.
As it turned out, he was really boring. There
was no Have I Got News-style jousting over dinner
and, while we all awaited a good chortle at
his speech, he stuck to a desperately serious script
about putting more bobbies on the beat, cutting
bureaucracy and improving public transport.
Yawn. It was the same old stuff you hear from
politicians everywhere when there's an election
in the wind.
What Boris has to remember is that his popularity
is entirely due to the fact that he's different
- an antidote to dull politicians who stick to the
party line and are afraid to speak their minds.
After all, that's why the people of Hartlepool
elected a man in a monkey suit as their mayor.
MOUNTING tensions within the Cabinet apparently
came to a head last week with an extraordinary
bust-up between Jack Straw and Ed Balls.
It all became so heated that the Justice Secretary
apparently almost came to blows with the
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
Oh how the Cabinet is missing someone
with maturity and class. Someone like John
Prescott. He only went round punching voters.
TALK of puncher Prescott reminds me... while
speaking at the aforementioned newspaper
conference, I raised concerns about the declining
standards of English.
It prompted an email from a colleague who'd
spotted the following in a newspaper's classified
columns: "Groovy Chick bike for 7-9 year old.
Good condition. Just a tiny bit of rust on the
breaks and a slow puncher on the back wheel."
MEANWHILE, what on earth is happening to the
Daily Mirror? The redesign of its sports section
is horrendous. Bizarre italic headlines and blindingly
bright yellow makes it look like a dog's
breakfast. If you are a Daily Mirror reader, I suggest
you invest in a pair of sunglasses. Better
still, make the switch to The Northern Echo.
LAST week's column about the failings of Patientline,
the private company providing telephone
and television services at hospitals, has
prompted some interesting correspondence from
readers.
I'm glad to report that I've had a letter of apology
and promise of a refund of the money I paid
for my father to have a telephone, which didn't
work, at the James Cook University Hospital,
Middlesbrough.
But I'm clearly not alone. We're on the case -
please keep your feedback coming.
10:02am Monday 14th April 2008
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