On 24 Apr, 16:05, Mizter T wrote:
I hadn't picked up on this story at all yesterday - Evening Standard
are running with the possibility that Bozza might only be around until
2012, based on an interview he did with the paper's editor that
appears today. Just thought some of you might be interested in this,
hence this post.

* Teaser article that appeared yesterday - "Boris: I may only serve
one term as Mayor of London" (23.04.09)http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/artic...

* The interview piece itself - "So Boris, is this a dress rehearsal
for No 10?" (24.04.09)http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/artic...

* Follow on-story story - "London Tories look to a future without
Boris" (24.04.09)http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/artic...

Now of course the ES often goes in for overblowing such stories (to
say the least), but in the interview he does make a number of comments
including "I don't know if I am going to try to do a second term
[...]" before going on to somewhat ambiguously qualify his comments
(ambiguous because they seem to leave open the option of going to do
something about x, y and z issues elsewhere - i.e. at Westminster and
in Whitehall, in other words in central government).

I did spot this in the freebys yesterday, and I wondered how seriously
to take flippant comments made in an interview.

The same freebys included stories about Ali G against whom a lawsuit
for defamation (in a comedy routine) was dismissed by a judge who
commented "No reasonable person could consider the statements made by
Ali G on the program to be factual. It is obvious that the Ali G
character is absurd, and all his statements are gibberish and intended
as comedy."

For some reason I saw parallels.