April 14, 2008. Copyright 2008, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Profile of London's conservative mayoral candidate Boris Johnson
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, April 14, Graphic News: As the best-known Conservative after David Cameron, heÕs one of his partyÕs greatest assets, but is Boris Johnson cut out to be mayor of one of the greatest cities on Earth?

ThatÕs the question many are asking as Boris -- his self-deprecating wit and comic timing have won him a huge following after appearances on TV shows including Have I Got News for You? --  threatens to snatch the job from Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone.

For many, the second question is whether Johnson even wants to be mayor. After leaving Oxford he worked briefly as a management consultant before becoming a columnist and editing the Spectator magazine. The married father of four had to give up a post as junior shadow minister after it was discovered that he had lied about an extramarital affair. 

Some claim the old Etonian has a horror of responsibility and dodges questions about policy, but just as many say the bumbling persona conceals the steely ambition of a natural politician.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is full of surprises and -- to jaded Londoners -- he seems like a breath of fresh air. The self-styled bungler with the mop of blonde hair is not afraid to speak out on problems in the city, or elsewhere for that matter. He once said Portsmouth was Òtoo full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPsÓ.

He promises to make London more civilized and to get rid of the cronyism of the Livingstone years. In a race that the media has characterized as a contest between a ÒcrookÓ and a ÒclownÓ, Boris Johnson might well have the last laugh.
/ENDS