Boris Johnson and Alex Salmond: Unlikely political twins? – Spectator Blogs

Here’s David Torrance with the kind of acute observation I wish I’d thought of first. There is, he writes, a comparison to be drawn between Alex Salmond and Boris Johnson:

[Salmond’s] approval ratings also remain remarkably high, but then Salmond enjoys a very specific sort of popularity. Asked who best “stands up for Scotland” he wins hands down, but if voters are asked if they agree with his vision for an independent Scotland then it’s two-to-one against. So Scots like Alex Salmond, but they only like him in a particular setting.

That context is the halfway house between full government and opposition otherwise known as devolution. As First Minister Salmond is both in government and in opposition, allowing him to take credit for all the goodies (free benefits) and blame London for everything that goes wrong (cuts). In such a context a politician with opportunistic flair thrives, as does the Conservative Boris Johnson as Mayor of London.