London Mayor Boris Johnson is no stranger to controversy mostly because he tends to speak his mind in an abrupt style that makes a point and has little time for those who might prefer something a little more eloquent. Subsequently his most recent comments this week, which drew the ire of Lib.-Dem. leader Nick Clegg in The Guardian & elsewhere, do not surprise anyone other than with the originality of the statement.
His speech at the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) Wednesday showed that he remains a fan of the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and goes to great lengths to point out that in fact she spoke to many a common person in the land.
What’s gotten everybody all worked up, including Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Clegg, is analogies used by the Mayor such as 16% "of our species" has an IQ below 85 and his calls for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130.
This is a two- edged sword for politicians to walk, although when it comes to economics Mr. Johnson doesn’t seem too concerned. To some extent he’s right, more intelligent people are capable of contributing more to the economy, but it’s not the right thing to say when a politically correct media is reporting.
Nick Clegg was not amused! He told LBC radio "I don't agree with Boris Johnson on this. Much as he is a funny and engaging guy, I have to say these comments reveal a fairly unpleasant, careless elitism that somehow suggests we should give up on a whole swath of fellow citizens."
Of course Clegg misrepresents what was said, but it’s what you get from a lefty every time you state, as John Cleese would say on Monty Python, “the bleedin’ obvious.” Lefties don’t like the obvious because it tends to unmask all the riddles they’ve been concocting.
Clegg, though had points of his own worthy of mention. He continued on LBC saying "To talk about us as if we are a sort of breed of dogs, a species I think he calls it … the danger is if you start taking such a deterministic view of people because they have got a number attached to them, in this case an IQ number, they are not going to rise to the top of the cornflake packet, that is complete anathema to everything I've always stood for in politics."
And on that matter he is right, though I suspect Johnson would not wholeheartedly disagree. People are more than their IQ and many with average or less have achieved the same or more because they have applied themselves to work using common sense. At the same time the Mayor’s deeper assertion that economic equality cannot be a reality is true.
There will always be differences amongst people. If equality of outcome was guaranteed there would be no incentive to achieve and the world would be a stagnant and undernourished place. People motivated by say faith or maturity would constantly be punished by virtue of pulling ahead of the rest, thus success would be (and already is) continually critiqued and de-emphasized.
What Johnson said beyond the IQ reference was “some measure of inequality is essential, for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Jones’s that is, like greed, a valuable spur to the economy.” This is a logistically true statement that nevertheless points to a key difference between Johnson and Thatcher.
The late Prime Minister had a moral compass and ethics that Mr. Johnson lacks. If greed drives the economy it will be corrupt and ultimately succumb to decadence. If a fear of one’s community standing is what drives the economy it will be rooted in jealousy and succumb to economic civil war.
Boris Johnson’s push for social liberal values shows that he lacks the morality to build a key component of a strong economy. His pursuit of gay-marriage and other liberal ideas reveal a lack of fortitude to lay the foundations of family values. It identifies a fear of judgment that others will view him less favourably because he denies them their ‘rights’.
When St. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi he said of Christ that he (Ch. 2: Ver. 7) “counted himself of no reputation”, thus implying the church members should do the same. Where many conservative thinkers fail is they take liberal criticism to heart and compromise their values, adjusting their policies accordingly.
The Mayor’s comments drew attention because they were essentially correct. “Light shines into the darkness” said John the Baptist, “and the darkness cannot comprehend it.” Boris Johnson may be on the right track with London’s economic policy, but Britain’s capital is also a morally declining Rome that cannot stand forever unless morality is drafted in as its equal partner.
