Boris Johnson And Youth Crime

It would be catastrophic to underestimate Boris Johnson.

The stereotype is that he's a dunce who'll keep putting his foot in his mouth. Boris isn't going away. He was elected as gaffe-free New Boris, and he will govern as New Boris. Anything other than that, and the Conservatives are toast, with regard to especially northern cities, at the next election.

I'm finding it much more interesting thinking about why Boris won, not lamenting that the electorate were so stoo-pid.

One reason was his position on crime. There must be a way of articulating a better left-centre non-New-Labour tough-on-crime, approachs to law and disorder and restoring responsibility in society. One of BoJo's first appointments was Ray Lewis, founder of the Eastside Young Leaders Academy, in Edmonton, NE London.

Lee Jasper, Ken Livingstone's former race adviser and a long-time champion of young people from London's black community, is a fan of his attitude, describing Lewis's project as brilliant.

"His focus on personal responsibility and discipline are positive things and he is getting results. He has not got any experience of politics or delivering policy but that may work in his favour in some ways because he will be a breath of fresh air ... and when you are talking to young people in and around gangs you have to have radical solutions and be brave enough to follow them through, and he has that."