Any questions? Tough, Boris won’t be answering them
On 7 March, Ken Livingstone was on the panel of Any Questions? on BBC Radio 4. In the interests of impartiality, host Jonathan Dimbleby introduced him thus:
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London and the first of the three leading candidates that we’ve invited on to the programme between now and the election in May when the people of London will decide who should be their next mayor.
Sure enough, last night’s panel included Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, and (as with the show on which Ken appeared) there was plenty of discussion of the London elections and issues pertaining to London.
But then came this surprising announcement from Mr. Dimbleby:
Regular listeners to the programme may remember that Ken Livingstone was on the programme on March the 7th, and of course Brian Paddick is on on this occasion, and inevitably we asked the other leading candidate, Boris Johnson, if he would like to join the programme, and he declined, saying that he didn’t wish to discuss national issues while he was concentrating on the London Mayoral election.
So he’s not just terrified of his incompetence at debating the issues with his rival Mayoral candidates: he can’t even face the thought of discussing any issues with anyone in a live environment where the panellists don’t know what they’ll be asked in advance.
Is it unprecedented for a London Mayoral candidate to turn down a high-profile media appearance in which they can put across their views and policies to a large audience? I certainly can’t remember it happening before.
This betrays a fundamental lack of confidence in both Boris’s policies and abilities, neither of which it seems even his own team think would stand up to proper public scrutiny.
A vote for Boris is a vote for policies and incompetence so indefensible he can’t even be bothered to defend them. Extraordinary.