An interesting article in this weeks Courier by Stephanie Grant - an interview with Boris Johnson MP.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes controversial, sometimes entertaining, he's one of those politicians that everybody either loves or hates. Boris Johnson talks to Stephanie Grant about tuition fees, what the future holds for Cameron's Conservative Party and presenting Have I Got News For You.
Do you think that students were right to be concerned about top-up fees, or does the increase in University applications vindicate the decision to increase fees?
Look at the numbers, you've got a 7.2% increase in applications in England alone, the average is a 6.4% increase. It's an astonishing vote of confidence by students and potential students in the value of doing a degree. There will be some students who decide after they've got their degree that it wasn't really relevant to what they went on to do, that the whole thing was a waste of time, whatever. In my view these people will be in a tiny minority. I think students have spotted that the deal this year is pretty favourably structured: you don't pay anything back until you earn fifteen grand or more, and even then you only have to pay it back over 25 years at a very modest rate indeed. I do think that the fears were overdone, and I do think that people should be confident about going for a University course. But I want to stress that like everything in life it can go wrong, it's not for everybody, but it's overwhelmingly likely that it will be a good idea.
Do you think that the current Government's target of having 50% of 18 to 30 year-olds going into higher education is a realistic one, and is it worth it? You yourself have commented on "loony degrees" in subjects like windsurfing - would people doing those subjects not be better off getting a job?
My views on that have changed. I've been round a lot of Universities and talked to a lot of people. Look at Media Studies for instance: it's one degree everybody says is completely useless, but if you look at the employment rates and the salaries that they get when they start, it's a pretty serious job. I don't think it's the business of politicians to go round deciding tat this or that course is no good. Students are smart, they're going to work out what's a good investment and what isn't, and increasingly they're going for the subjects that are going to deliver real intellectual stimulation and get them proper qualifications. I think guys like me should just watch and listen. People must do what they want to do, an that's exactly the same point as I would make about the 50% quota or target. I don't want a target at all - let people decide. I don't see any particular advantage in trying to force people into higher education when they're not suited to it or don't want it. Official Tory policy is to scrap the target but encourage people to go.
"I don't see any particular advantage in trying to force people into higher education when they're not suited to it or don't want it."
What about Tony Blair's recent announcement that for every £2 donated to Universities the Government will give £1? Is it a good idea or will it just increase the gap between the elite Universities and the rest?
That is obviously a concern. The way the proposal is structured tries to deal with that concern by suggesting that the Government gives £1 for every £2 raised by Cambridge, but it's one for one in the case of a newer University. You're absolutely right that that is a difficulty with trying to encourage more donations to Universities, and that some Universities will tend to have a more affluent alumni base, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't start. The top ten British Universities have a total cash endowment of £6 billion; the top ten American Universities have a total cash endowment of about £58 billion. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't start to encourage people to give more to their Universities in this country, and if it needs a little bit of matching funding from the Government to get it going, I thing that's quite a good idea.
The big discussion recently has been about David Cameron and what he got up to when he was at school. How much do you think it really matters?
I don't think it matters a bean. I don't think people give a monkey's frankly, what someone did at school. Looking at the polls, if anything it seems to have helped him. I say, well, bollocks to that, frankly. It doesn't seem to have shaken the stock market, does it?
Do you think politicians are entitled to the "private past" that he talks about, or is it natural that they are subject to the same scrutiny as any other well-known personality?
I think they are entitled to a private present, not just a private past.
Will David Cameron have failed as Conservative leader if he doesn't win the next general election?
It's not a possibility I contemplate. I hope we're going to win.
Is there a strong confidence within the Party that this is the best opportunity in ten years to win?
There certainly is. I've fought three elections now, and we've been whopped every time by Labour, and I'm getting thoroughly fed up with it. It's time to win. We need a change; these guys have been in for a long time and we've got a totally different party, a totally different approach. We're going to enormous lengths to make clear that a lot of the old perceptions of the Tory party are wrong. We're going to be a party that governs in the interests of the entire nation. We're there for absolutely everybody in this country.
Do you think that with taking that approach there's a risk of alienating the party's traditional core support?
I don't think so. The things we're getting attacked for at the moment - being too pro-green, soft on gays - millions of natural Tory voters have been yearning for these messages for years. The green message is very Conservative - I think it was a great mistake of the Tories not to talk about this before. The other point is that I haven't really seen this great migration of Tory activists away from the Tory party to UKIP - it's just not happening. People were waiting for a new message, they were fed up with the old message, and I think Cameron's getting it right.
What's it like as a politician to be sent up in magazines like Private Eye? You have your own section, 'Boris the Menace': is it an honour or an insult?
I'm beyond insulting. I find life so bizarre. It's always pretty good-natured, as far as I can make out.
Have you any plans to present 'Have I Got News For You' again in the future?
I don't know. They haven't invited me, put it that way! But you never know. I think I've now made a hash of it so many times, it can't possibly go worse.
That is obviously a concern. The way the proposal is structured tries to deal with that concern by suggesting that the Government gives £1 for every £2 raised by Cambridge, but it's one for one in the case of a newer University. You're absolutely right that that is a difficulty with trying to encourage more donations to Universities, and that some Universities will tend to have a more affluent alumni base, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't start. The top ten British Universities have a total cash endowment of £6 billion; the top ten American Universities have a total cash endowment of about £58 billion. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't start to encourage people to give more to their Universities in this country, and if it needs a little bit of matching funding from the Government to get it going, I thing that's quite a good idea.
The big discussion recently has been about David Cameron and what he got up to when he was at school. How much do you think it really matters?
I don't think it matters a bean. I don't think people give a monkey's frankly, what someone did at school. Looking at the polls, if anything it seems to have helped him. I say, well, bollocks to that, frankly. It doesn't seem to have shaken the stock market, does it?
Do you think politicians are entitled to the "private past" that he talks about, or is it natural that they are subject to the same scrutiny as any other well-known personality?
I think they are entitled to a private present, not just a private past.
Will David Cameron have failed as Conservative leader if he doesn't win the next general election?
It's not a possibility I contemplate. I hope we're going to win.
Is there a strong confidence within the Party that this is the best opportunity in ten years to win?
There certainly is. I've fought three elections now, and we've been whopped every time by Labour, and I'm getting thoroughly fed up with it. It's time to win. We need a change; these guys have been in for a long time and we've got a totally different party, a totally different approach. We're going to enormous lengths to make clear that a lot of the old perceptions of the Tory party are wrong. We're going to be a party that governs in the interests of the entire nation. We're there for absolutely everybody in this country.
Do you think that with taking that approach there's a risk of alienating the party's traditional core support?
I don't think so. The things we're getting attacked for at the moment - being too pro-green, soft on gays - millions of natural Tory voters have been yearning for these messages for years. The green message is very Conservative - I think it was a great mistake of the Tories not to talk about this before. The other point is that I haven't really seen this great migration of Tory activists away from the Tory party to UKIP - it's just not happening. People were waiting for a new message, they were fed up with the old message, and I think Cameron's getting it right.
What's it like as a politician to be sent up in magazines like Private Eye? You have your own section, 'Boris the Menace': is it an honour or an insult?
I'm beyond insulting. I find life so bizarre. It's always pretty good-natured, as far as I can make out.
Have you any plans to present 'Have I Got News For You' again in the future?
I don't know. They haven't invited me, put it that way! But you never know. I think I've now made a hash of it so many times, it can't possibly go worse.
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