Cometh the hour? Part II

Ready to take one for the team?

If it really is true, as Nick Robinson reports here, that the Tories have been trying desperately to draft in Boris Johnson as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London then it goes some way towards explaining why he was passed over in the recent reshuffle. It's also an entirely understandable move: Boris remains virtually the Conservatives only well-known face outside the Shadow Cabinet, and a good deal better known than most of them. He possesses both lightness of touch and capacity for thought, though admittedly the latter quality is often obscured by his self-conscious buffoonery.

Will he go for it though? He is apparently unsure of the merits of leaving his beautiful and safely Tory Henley seat, for the uncertain rewards of a campaign against Labour's dirtiest street fighter Ken Livingstone, a street fighter, moreover, with all the benefits of incumbency in a post that he has flagrantly personalised. If I were Boris, I'd be very hesitant before going along with this: it would mean the end of all Parliamentary ambition, it would mean a deeply unpleasat campaign, and, very probably, would end in defeat to the grotty little newt-fancier. Nice idea though.