BORIS JOHNSON LOOKS TO PERICLES FOR INSPIRATION
The man who would be mayor is looking to the classical past for inspiration, says his biographer and former colleague, Andrew Gimson
By next weekend, Boris Johnson could be the new Mayor of London. It is a prospect that astonishes the many people who wrote him off as a clown, prompting them to ask in a bewildered tone whether Boris has suddenly become "serious"
His jokes owe much to his father, Stanley, but on whom will Boris model himself if he becomes mayor?
With most of our politicians, confined as they are by their knowledge of only one language and only one time - the present - the best one could hope for would be an admiring reference to what Rudy Giuliani or Michael Bloomberg have done in New York.
Instead, this classicist takes us back to the first flowering of democratic politics in Athens: his hero is Pericles, leader of that city state in its golden age in the fifth century BC.
As far as I can see, none of the politicians and pundits who wonder whether Boris is "serious" has troubled to glance at Pericles.
It is not as if Boris has made any secret of his hero-worship: his Commons office is adorned with a bust of the great man, and when asked by a magazine who he would invite to a "fantasy dinner party", he replied: "You mean apart from Marilyn Monroe, Pericles, Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Descartes? I think I would have Scarlett thingy… Scarlett Johansson, my wife, and David Willetts, the Tory education spokesman."
Another interviewer asked: "Who is your historical pin-up, and why?"
Back came the answer: "Pericles. Look at his funeral speech. Democracy. Freedom. Champion stuff."
It is instructive, then, to read that great oration, delivered by the statesman in the winter of 431-430 BC at a funeral ceremony for the dead of the Peloponnesian War. For while these words, as given to us by Thucydides, were addressed to the Athenians, they are of the closest application to the United Kingdom, and especially to London:
"Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbours. It is more the case of our being a model to others, than of our imitating anyone else. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority, but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.
"No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other. We do not get into a state with our next-door neighbour if he enjoys himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt people's feelings. We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law. This is because it commands our deep respect."
(From a Telegraph article)
Let's hope that Boris, if elected, will be able to live up to those high principles.
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