Labour running scared

I can tell from the wannabe-muckraking google searches that bring GLA employees and Labour Party sympathisers to this blog, because of my recent post about Boris Johnson, that the Labour machine is terrified of him.

Iain Dale points to a piece in thisislondon.co.uk that shows just how desperate they are becoming. The Labour ginger group Compass has produced a report:

portraying their likely opponent, Boris Johnson, as a "fanatical" member of the "Tory hard right" and "Norman Tebbit in a clown's uniform" [but which] is based on a systematic distortion of Johnson's views

That's an understatement:

One article cited as proving Johnson's "support" for George W Bush actually has him describing the President as "serially incompetent", a "cross-eyed warmonger" and "maniac" whose re-election in 2004 was "the most dismal awakening of my life".

A quote about his "fanatical" backing of the Iraq invasion comes from a pre-war article that condemns the Blair Government's "cynical and ludicrous" attempts to scare the public about Saddam's alleged WMD and says: "If we are really concerned about the weapons of mass destruction, then let the UN [inspection] process work itself through."

The report condemns Johnson's support for the Iraq war, nuclear power, more private finance in the NHS, and large-scale cuts to the civil service as a "real threat" to London's "progressive consensus" without saying these are also Labour Party policy.

If this is the best they can do, Boris can start getting measured for the Mayoral gown, and he knows it:

Johnson, whose campaign formally launches on Monday, said: "I think it is an abuse of the human rights of Ken's supporters that they have been obliged to read all my books. But I do very much hope that they can be persuaded to continue with this risible line of attack."