From Boris to Bloomberg

Boris has just brought the house down with a speech attacking Ken Livingstone and setting out the Tory agenda for London. One senses that Boris will have no problem in motivating the party activists to hit the streets for him.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, was witty and self-deprecating and generally far better than I expected. Yet, I’m still sceptical of the decision to invite him. Bloomberg’s recent decision to quit the Republican Party and his flirtation with an independent run for the presidency has made him persona non grata with various sections of the Republican Party and his relationship with his predecessor and the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani is far from good. I can’t see that the upside of his speech is worth the downside of  further straining ties between the Tories and the Republicans.