to think Eddie Mair went too far

[BagWoman]

with Boris on The AM show?

Normally I love Mair- but I found his grilling and assassination of Boris most unnecessary.

Boris is right- who cares about what happened with a piece he wrote years ago etc etc.

A totally wasted interview IMO.

[cumfy]

I seem to have misplaced an N somewhere.

Don't worry; I'm sure it's not relevant.

[Tortington]

boris the stuck up twunt of a fop flop had it coming,

plagerist, conspired have someone beaten up

[Tortington]

fit to lead the tory party becuase he knows all the rich wrong people in all the right places

fit to lead the tory party becuase he is a rich cock and nothing else.

the only qualification the tories need

[cumfy]

The best bit was:

BJ: Look, I don't want to go over all that again
EM: I don't blame you!
:o

[aquashiv]

Didn't see it but if he made that shady lying oaf squirm then good for Mair.

[BagCat]

Boris, the dangerous man behind a veneer of oafishness and acting all daft, deserved a grilling. It broke his usual drafted PR responses to every question he usually gets asked, that's for sure.

Also, if someone wants to be a future PM, they should more than be able to handle such an interview.

I'd like to see many more politicians held to account in similar style interviews, might make them think twice before they do stupid things in future.

[Lockedout434]

Aren't they
Not the

[LittleTyga]

I don't think Mair went far enough! BoJo is fooling too many people with his affable, bumbling act. He is a liar and a nasty piece of work and I wish more interviewers would expose him as the lying toe rag he is.

Good on Eddie - bravo I say!

[GoshAnneGorilla]

YABU!

It amazes me the allowances that get made for the "posh". Boris Johnson has a personal life fit for the Jeremy Kyle show amongst many other failings, but because he's an "eccentric button", we're not meant to mind.

[ImperialBlether]

lljkk I'm going to pick you up on your comment, "DH loathes Mair, refuses to have the PM programme on." You're not the first to say this sort of thing, but I wanted to ask you why you said it.

Nothing against your husband, but it's your opinion that's wanted on here! Why not put your own opinion, rather than your husband's?

[DrownedGirl]

Loved the interview. Boris and the rest of the Tories are a bunch of slime balls

Good to see a journalist setting their sights on someone who deserves it, rather than attacking members of the public who have done nothing, such as Lucy Meadows

[lolaflores]

Just watched it. Oh dearie me Bozzer, you do look a turnip in a suit don't you?! Can anyone one for two minutes imagine this clown in charge of the country? This being sent abroad to represent Britain? That is the best we as a nation can cobble together? Though perhaps he represents the kind of go ahead people with their hands on the controls. Shady, morally corrupt, Media savvy, cute hoors who will always end up on their feet well clear of the poo poo. I cannot believe anyone in the Tory party would let him be PM. Unless he promised them their every desire....

[lolaflores]

drownedgirl well said you. Precisely. If Bozzer thinks he is going to get handled with kid gloves by every declawed journo that gets in spitting distance of him, then I think he is having a think. Journalists who won't roll around laughing at his "stupid posh prat" schtick and rendering them useless

[hackmum]

I didn't see the Boris interview, but I won't hear a word against Eddie Mair - I think he is an absolutely superb interviewer, and worth a dozen Paxmans. I agree with kim's comment ("I remember on PM when he went to a village near Swansea to interview someone who was using the extra day to overcome his agarophobia and go outside on the bus") - that was a brilliant interview, he is just so good and so gentle and likeable with ordinary people. I'll never forget the interview he did with the woman whose daughter was killed in the 7/7 bombings.

In any case, it's time someone took Boris to task. He's got away with this lovable buffoon schtick for far too long.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Perhaps now, more people will realise what an untrustworthy kind of person Boris is, and see beyond the 'loveable rogue/eccentric' facade that he likes to display.

Nasty, nasty man.

[BeckAndCall]

Sorry, totally agree with Boris on this. The Sunday after the budget the topic to debate is the budget, not what Boris said when he was having an affair.

Mair missed the chance to get some good insight into policy by pursing his own narrow agenda there - this is not Jeremy Kyle, it's meant to be political comment.

[MoreBeta]

The problem I have with thsi interview is that the same interview could be directed at a variety of politicians in positions of real power in all parties BUT it was directed at BJ abd backed up by an expose programme and reported in full front page by the Guardian.

Fine. Llets have an expose of all the party leaders and senior political figures and their backgrounds and what they did over the last 25 years. Lets have similarly tough interviews of all of them. Let we the people decide for ourselves.

It is not going to happen though is it.

Why BJ, why now?

That is what I really want to know.

[Mimi55]

Teatrolley: In your earlier post you said '...or that passing on someone's address to a person who wants to harm them is an issue?' - well that IS accusing him of being complicit in a crime. The reality is Boris DIDN'T pass on an address to Guppy and nothing happened to the chap in question - add to that the fact that this telephone call was 30 years ago how relevant is this really? Mair was just muckraking, you're attempting to do the same. This isn't my first post BTW - I have several accts. No need to apologise for being wrong.

[BeckAndCall]

Good point mimi but the real facts very really sway those who want a reason to bash a politician ( on mumsnet or the bbc) so I think this will carry on running with people who want to think the worst, for whatever reason.

As you say, no crime was ever committed, no harm ever came to the guy in question, two old school friends had a private conversation, it was 30 years ago. Shock horror!

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Part of the reason for this interview happening now is because of the documentary being screened by BBC2 this evening, called "Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise" - all part of the machinery that is pushing Boris ever closer to his ambition to be Prime Minister

More here

The fact that he doesn't fulfil key criteria to become PM are not things he worries his tousled head about:

"It is left to Stanley, though, to make clear what it is. Boris, Stanley tells us in serious tones, has done so well as London mayor he should now "go" for the Tory leadership. "Don't tell me we can't get over" any "mechanical" problems like having to be an MP first, he says blithely. "We either change the rules" or "we'll find a way of making him a member of parliament" at the 2015 general election."

[TheRealFellatio]

I haven't seen this yet, but when the storm over the Sinead O'Connor thing was going on I immediately blamed her without seeing it, because I do find her stroppy and difficult, and sometimes quite charmless. However Jamieandthemagictorch encouraged me to watch it before passing judgement (always sensible) and I must say I thought he was an arse to her, and I completely understood why she reacted the way she did.

[teatrolley]

It's your first post in this name. Fairly cowardly. There is so much muck surrounding Boris that it needs clarifying.

[Mimi55]

Really? So much muck that a 30 year old telephone call where Boris didn't impart any info and nothing happened to anyone is top of the agenda?