Boris interviews Paxman

Surely a classic in political journalism on newsnight

What the media commentators are saying

In the Indy,Stephen Glover is rather unhappy about Boris Johnson's decision to resume his Telegraph column

Silly me. A few months ago I suggested that part of Boris Johnson might welcome defeat in the London mayoral election since it would enable him to resume his 250,000 a year column on The Daily Telegraph. It did not occur to me that he would take it up again if he won

and reminds us that

There is, after all, a convention in this country that politicians in office do not write regular newspaper columns, it being thought desirable that the executive should be kept separate from the fourth estate

More good publicity for Twitter in the Guardian as Jeff Jarvis writes that

Twitter is becoming the canary in the news coalmine. It stands to reason: if you've just gone through a major event, you are sure to want to update your friends about it. If enough people are chattering about an earthquake at the same time, that's an immediate indication of a major news story.

In the same paper Kim Fletcher exposes the idea that the world has become a global village

One of the first things we learn to do as cub reporters is to persuade people to let us through the door so we can talk about their troubles. There are four basic approaches: the sympathetic appeal to the therapeutic benefit of confession; the crusading cry that the world must hear of their plight; the lawyerly suggestion that it is important to put their side of the story; and the outraged demand that the public has a right to know and they have a duty to tell.
None of these works with the Burmese generals, who have done a most effective job in preventing the world from witnessing the wholly ineffective way in which they appear to have dealt with the devastation brought to the Irrawaddy delta by Cyclone Nargis.

The Independent takes a look at new press markets

New newspapers some backed by governments, others by business moguls and international conglomerates are springing up from Rwanda to Tajikistan, attracting readers and advertising revenues. In many of these markets, increasing literacy rates dovetail with growing disposable income to create millions of new daily readers. And some Western media companies are forging partnerships and trying their hand at start-up companies as well.

It wasn't the Standard that won it claims Gilligan

With the result of the London mayoral contest going the way of Boris Johnson,there will be many commentators who will be saying,it was the Standard that won it.

The statement harks back to the Sun's of the 1992 general election.

In today's Independent,the man behind the headlines, Andrew Gilligan,defends his actions saying that he was merely highlighting the problems of Ken's administration

What the Standard can claim is this. Firstly, in the same way as Boris brought together an existing anti-Ken majority, our investigations into Lee Jasper and the missing millions crystallised many Londoners' existing doubts about Livingstone.

adding

they were factual and measured, thoroughly and transparently sourced, widely followed-up, had important real consequences, such as resignations and arrests, and have of course never, in any specific particular, been denied.

According to Gilligan,Livingstone was given the right of reply,something that he failed to take up

We gave Ken six days to answer our questions before publishing. Five months on there are still no answers. Instead, to our incredulity, he unleashed a barrage of abuse against me and the paper that confirmed not just our stories, but the fears about him

So was Ken simply defeated by the national backlash against the party and the Standard played its part by putting his administration under scrutiny.I am sure this will be featuring in future editions of media studies books

Gilligan is unrepentant over his anti Ken campaign

Andrew Gilligan defends his and the London evening standard's attacks on Ken Livingstone in the Guardian this morning.

If Ken Livingstone loses office tomorrow, however, and Boris Johnson becomes mayor of London, Gilligan will have proved himself one of the one most influential players in the election. For the past six months, he has been waging a relentless campaign in the pages of the capital's only paid-for newspaper, the London Evening Standard, under headlines such as "Ken's adviser is linked to terror group",

According to Gilligan

his style of government is fundamentally unpleasant and unscrupulous and cynical. He's got a sort of governing MO [modus operandi] which I absolutely deplore - which is essentially to segment the population, which is defined by one thing. If you're a Muslim, to Ken that's all you are. I'm saying he practises the politics of division."

Furthermore he believes that Ken is not a progressive but a reactionary politican.

"One of the key problems in this city is there's a massive gulf between the rich and the poor. And what we have in the East End, literally within sight of the City, is the lowest area of employment in the country,

He refutes though one of the main speculations aboit his campiagn which is that he was taken on my Boris at the Spectator following the Hutton inquiry.

My relationship with Boris is not that close, I promise. I've never been to his house, I've never had a non-professional relationship with him.

The good and the badof online polititians

Laura Oliver at Online journalism news reports that

London mayoral candidates are using the web to bypass the mainstream media and answer questions put to them directly by the electorate.

and adds that

Crowdsourcing debate website Yoosk is running an online hustings, gathering questions to put to several of the candidates running in next month's election.
Readers submit questions for their specified candidates, other users then vote on the questions they want the candidates to answer

Of course there is a problem with this sort of interactivity.The Sun are running a question and answer session online with Boris Johnson and this was his answer to a qusetion about the smoking ban

What is the point of having local democracy if we don't leave decisions like this to a local level?
If I had my way, we would have an online referendum in London about whether to give boroughs back the power to give discretion over smoking to pubs and clubs

For the record his comments were quickly covered over by his minders as personal only and not part of Tory policy

Echoes of familiarity

Labour home previews the front cover of Tribune magazine.

Seems rather familiar circa the Sun 1992???

I wander whether they are using a low energy bulb

Meeting with Boris Johnson MP

I have been down in London for the past couple of days as part of a group of mature students.

We met with the flamboyant MP for Henley,Boris Johnson to discuss problems and hurdles that mature students have to overcome at university.

Boris was eager to listen to all our stories and was extremely supportive of any widening of the education base that would make it easier for more mature students to enter the higher education system.

Boris away again

I have to be careful what I say as I am due to be meeting the Great man in a couple of weeks time but perhaps you can make up your own minds by reading the piece by Boris Johnson in this morning's Telegraph

Here is a taster from the article entitled "Time to reconquer France"

In his Histoire d'Angleterre, André Maurois points out that the Seine and the Thames used both to be tributaries of the same great primaeval river, and that it was only in the past 8,000 years - a twinkling - that the melting glaciers turned that river into the Channel. Well, I say it is time we forded that river again.

The place I am thinking of has sensational food, and sunshine and clean hospitals and trains that can travel at 357 mph and waiters with a far better command of English than you can find in London.