Amid speculation that Boris intends to capture Downing Street (you don’t say?) he arrived as promised (albeit somewhat tardily) at Leadenhall Market this morning, riding on the top deck of a Routemaster with assorted spin doctors, PR, journalists, photographers and er…Gary Rhodes.
The first photographer off the bus greeted his waiting colleagues by giving them the finger, a delightfully English way to start St George’s Day. Already waiting were Boris’s loyal Assembly Members (all two of them), Tony Arbour and Roger Evans, who were being fawned over by several spotty foetuses in suits from Conservative Future - the assembled youths in pinstriped-babygros were instructed to line the pavement and cheer loudly as their leader Mayor alighted.
An electric-folk group had been performing traditional olde standardes such as Henry VIII’s “Pastime With Good Company” but they were competing against a wide-screen TV which was showing “The Battle Of Britain” – I half wondered if the BNP had placed the TV there when I saw the on-screen hordes of Nazis.
After a brief walkabout around the stalls and shops of Leadenhall Market, followed by Gary Rhodes wielding a rather sad-looking mini-tray of bread and butter pudding, Boris took to the stage and declaimed how it was about time that the English reclaimed their national day, how fantastic the English language is (why the need for so much Latin then, Boris?) and how great the English are for having invented warm beer and cricket and stuff.
Guto Harri, Boris’s Communications Director, was part of the entourage and as they were perambulating I heard him say to someone “It’s not *my* patron saint!” presumably in reference to the fact that, unlike Boris, he wasn’t sporting a red rose. Now, now, Guto, you live in England now, you can jolly well be English.
There was no publicity in Leadenhall Market for this Saturday’s GLA-sponsored folk concert in Trafalgar Square so on my way back from Leadenhall Market I passed through Trafalgar Square to see if there was any publicity at the actual venue – not a sausage. There were, however, a couple of girls from the super, soaraway Sun standing around with a bloke in a dragon suit and another dressed as St George while a handful of tourists wondered what on earth was going on.
In fact, I saw no publicity whatsoever for the forthcoming concert in central London – no leaflets at Tube stations (plenty for the London Marathon) or tourist spots such as the National Gallery and no posters. The only publicity I’ve seen are a quarter-page advert in this week’s Time Out magazine (in the Museums section) and one poster at Hounslow East underground station – I kept a look out at every stop on the Piccadilly line into central London and also on the District line from Barons Court to Monument, nothing. Is this a ploy to ensure not many people turn up so future events can be cancelled with low attendance cited?
Edited to add: TfL’s London Loop (weekly what’s on in London newsletter) has just appeared in my in-box, is the St George’s folk concert in Trafalgar Square the headline event? What do you think?
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I see Conservative Future have admitted having “some two dozen” activists there – what with them and the journalists that makes up most of those present – the People’s Mayor, I don’t think.