Beware of Boris

So, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and prospective Tory MP, believes that we should consider anyone who goes to Syria without getting permission from the UK government first, should be considered a terrorist.  Let's look at that in a bit more detail. Effectively, what he is proposing is to completely overturn one of the cornerstones of British justice by proposing that some people should be presumed guilty under certain circumstances.  The presumption of innocence is an essential part of our justice system: it is why you have a right to remain silent and why it is for the state to prove its case - all important safeguards of our fundamental civil liberties.  But hey, if people haven't sought the state's permission to travel somewhere, why should they enjoy such liberties, eh?  Which, of course, is the other main problem with Boris' latest pronouncement: that we apparently shouldn't be allowed free movement without the consent of the state - a bit like the Soviet Union.  Obviously, none of this would matter - it would just be the demented reactionary ramblings of some right wing blow hard - if Johnson wasn't a prominent politician in one of the major parties, with serious ambitions to be Prime Minister.

For years I've been warning people not to fall for Boris' 'lovable buffoon' schtick, which he deploys to try and appear somehow above partisan politics.  The reality, I keep telling everyone, is that all this clowning is designed to try and hide the fact that he's really an extreme right-wing bastard who believes that niceties like human rights are only for the wealthy elite of which he is a prime example.  Thankfully, the mask is beginning to slip, with badly misjudged statements like this one.  Nevertheless, there are still far too many people out there who think Boris is some sort of 'man of the people' and is a 'bit of a laugh'.  Doubtless, they're the same people who think that Jeremy Clarkson isn't racist when he refers to Asian people as 'slopes' - it's just a 'bit of banter' of the sort you'd hear down the pub, isn't it?  But I'm straying from the point.  The question is: would you honestly be happy having as Prime Minister a man who thinks that you should have your legal rights suspended simply because he doesn't like your travel plans?  Because that is what this comes dow to: Boris Johnson's contempt for the established legal process and whether we're stupid or lazy enough to simply go along with him.