BORIS JOHNSON plans to prevent future London riots by teaching gang members how to be posh.
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At the Conservative Party conference today, the London Mayor unveiled a scheme to set up special after-school clubs in which surly youths will be:
“Offered enriching cultural and sporting experiences similar to those offered at independent schools,” as one of Johnson’s aides put it.
“Today we saw the real Boris Johnson – an out-of-touch Conservative,” said Ken Livingstone, Johnson’s main rival in next year’s London mayor election.
“He gave no hard commitment on police numbers, which are due to fall by 1,800, according to his own Metropolitan Police figures.”
It’s not the first time Johnson has argued that guiding disadvantaged kids into private-school culture is the way to stop crime. Back in 2008, he reckoned teaching Latin and Greek would sort out knife crime.
“[I’m] determined to get knives off the streets, but also to change the culture and to pull people away from the terrible culture of aggression,” he said.
“I think there’s a huge amount we can do in London by promoting the learning of languages including Latin and ancient Greek.”
Johnson told his Tory conference colleagues today that 25 of the new young gentlemen’s clubs are at the planning stage and that he hopes to have £2 million to spend on them, much of which the Mayor aims to raise from the private sector.
“Our objectives are to reduce truancy, improve behaviour, minimise the use of exclusions, help with literacy and encourage these children to carry on into further education,” said Munira Mirza, a Johnson assistant.
Also at the conference, Prime Minister David Cameron praised Johnson’s “strong, charismatic leadership”, but kept quiet about an interesting line from a new biography of the Mayor.
In Just Boris, author Sonia Purnell claims that Johnson once said: “One thing apparent to me… is that David Cameron is a complete c**t”. That’s cunnus for Latin fans.
