Give that man a big hand…

Don’t mess with the Digger or the Chancellor

You may or may not have seen the front plus two-inside-page-spread in yesterday’s Sunday Times Review touting Boris Johnson as the only credible rival David Cameron has for the Tory leadership. While this is probably true, being the only other person in the sack race doesn’t prove you’re any good at bouncing along in a sack. But then, the point of the story was to present BoJo as a man of action, spirit and adventure…..in stark contrast to the bland, risk-averse Prime Minister. It was, to be more precise, part of Murdoch’s payback for being deserted.

It is a sure pointer to the nature of Rupert’s odd mind (one both self-possessed and obsessed) that he deems the mess he got Cameron into as an act of rank disloyalty on the Prime Minister’s part. Why, the very humble old bugger  wonders, did Dave not stand firm when the beastly Left was at Newscorp’s heels? Anyway, the planet’s most multinational person is well into a second helping of his chilled revenge: he has befriended Alex Salmond to reduce Cameron’s chances of keeping the Union together – and, as a bonus, evading the English Courts; now he is backing Boris for the leadership. Given that Rupert Murdoch is still smarting from the Oxbridge ridicule he received a mere 61 years ago, nobody should be surprised.

Nor should one be surprised that Johnson himself is on good terms with Wapping. From Day One of Hackgate breaking out of the innuendo pages of the Guardian and Private Eye, BoJo leapt to the defence of Murdoch, describing the hacking accusations as “a pile of Left-wing tripe” and insisting that it was all a storm in a tea-cup. As a piece of political judgement, this observation is today looking rather sick, but people have short memories. Boris Johnson is a born elitist in all the worst senses of the term, and a man who knows the power of the press baron.

So it was that this morning found him given a large and long column of free advertising by the Barclay Brothers. While the blond bomber writes sporadically for the Daily Telegraph anyway, today’s effort was a self-laudatory (and laughably selective) account of his term as London Mayor, and why we should all jolly-well vote him back in with a resounding majority because he is a fine chap. Compared to the ghastly Ken Livingstone he probably is, but all things are relative. And as I say, Boris knows how the media world goes round.

He has also learned how to play the long game. If he gets back in as Mayor (and my instinct tells me he will, if only on the back of taking the Olympics credit) then four years from now he will be a far more credible leadership candidate than he is today. BoJo likes to give off the air of a bumbler, but he is anything but. His calculation is that by 2016, both the Conservative Party and the Country will be in the most God-almighty mess – but that with some kind of solid record of achievement as The Man Who Got Things Done in London, he could stand down as Mayor, stand up for the Right wing common man, and very probably stand for a constituency somewhere in Berkshire.

One of the few Tories who plays the chess game even more moves ahead is George Osborne, the real Teflon Knight of Camerlot. He was the man far closer six years ago to Newscorp than Cameron thought possible, or Steve Hilton wanted the Leader to be. Ozzie effected Dave’s introduction to Andy Coulson, and considered that election to office was impossible without Murdoch’s help….help he assiduously courted on yachts the length and breadth of the Aegean. Yet somehow, none of the ordure of those very poor political and ethical decisions has stuck to the Draper. He is lauded across Europe as just about the only Chancellor to have introduced austerity without being forced to, is on very good terms with Christine Lagarde, and in whatever spare time he has, is still the nearest thing the PM has to a career coach.

But it doesn’t do to cross George. The Slog has noted several times since May 2010 the ire that he feels about the shameless sociopaths in the MoD, who have gaily slashed the salaries and accommodation rights of  Squaddies, but so far failed to cull a single member of their own regiment. Twice now the Chancellor has attended meetings there to impress upon the smiling Mandarins that it won’t do. And twice they have nodded approvingly, while ignoring him.

Well, now Osborne too has had his revenge. Immediately after Liam Fox shocked and awed his own foot last year, new Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was taken to one side by the Squeaky One and instructed on the subject of good career moves. Today sees the tender for MoD procurement being put out to fifteen private companies, and nobody in Westminster is wearing a bigger smile than the Chancellor.

For George Osborne himself, the upcoming Budget is a make-or-break career occasion. As I posted yesterday, I’m not going to take a major interest in the content because it is clearly  irrelevant in the broader context of global crisis. But the floating of endless bubbles over the last week suggests a Chancellor looking to assess what will play best with the electorate. Like his rival Boris, Osborne thinks that David Cameron will be destroyed by Hackgate in the end. Given that BoJo is a Newscorp tool and George was a Newscorp catalyst, one can only describe this situation as part of the bitter-sweet irony of politics.