Boris Johnson: Conservative 'clown' becomes London mayor
LONDON (AFP) — Boris Johnson rode to victory as London mayor on a wave of public affection for his clownish gaffes and witty soundbites -- but now faces a battle to prove he is also capable of leading a major world city.
With his wild mop of blond hair, a turn of phrase reminiscent of author P.G. Woodhouse's upper-class twit Bertie Wooster and a string of chat show appearances under his belt, Johnson is already a household name here.
But a series of high-profile gaffes and his relative lack of frontline experience have left doubts about his ability to govern London, particularly in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.
"We need a serious ambassador for London to be our mayor, not a clown," Brian Paddick, the failed Liberal Democrat candidate for City Hall, said during the campaign.
Johnson, 43, who is usually known simply as "Boris", has the pedigree for high political office -- he was educated at the elite Eton College school and Oxford University, where he read Classics.
His father Stanley told BBC television before the results were announced Friday that if his son could master Greek and Latin, he could do just about anything, including run a city.
But Johnson junior has had to apologise repeatedly for perceived offensive remarks, while his most senior previous jobs were editing the right-wing Spectator magazine and acting as Conservative spokesman on higher education.
His accusation in 2004 that the people of Liverpool were wallowing in "victim status" after hostage Ken Bigley was killed in Iraq saw him forced to take a penitential trip to the northwest English city to say "sorry" in person.
He was dismissed not long after from the Conservatives' front-bench team for misleading then party leader Michael Howard about an extra-marital affair.
Comments in 2006 linking Papua New Guinea to "cannibalism and chief-killing" when describing a decade of infighting in the Tory party led to protests from the Pacific island state's diplomats.
Johnson promised to "add Papua New Guinea to my global itinerary of apology".
Meanwhile, London's black MPs, anti-racism campaigners, his mayoral challengers and a left-wing thinktank condemned his description in a 2002 newspaper article of black people as "piccaninies" with "water melon smiles".
The self-styled "one-man melting pot" -- his great-grandfather was briefly interior minister in the last Ottoman Turk government and he claims French, German and Russian heritage -- apologised but said he was taken out of context.
Elsewhere, there has also been controversy over his links to Darius Guppy, an old schoolfriend who was convicted of fraud -- and also reportedly roped Johnson into a plan to beat up a journalist.
But Johnson -- a close friend of current Tory leader David Cameron since Oxford and a fellow member of the raucous, upper class Bullingdon Club student drinking society -- bounced back during the knife-edge campaign.
His campaign targeted voters on the outskirts of London who have been alienated in previous mayoral elections by the focus on inner-city issues -- the "doughnut" strategy.
He ran on a platform of notably phasing out so-called "bendy buses" and reintroduce the hop-on, hop-off red Routmasters as well as reform Livingstone's controversial congestion charge road pricing scheme.
Johnson also has a strong following among some young people, thanks in part to appearances on top-rating quiz show "Have I Got News For You?" and underlined by his support on social networking website Facebook.
His challenge now is to translate popular support into policy success.
