As Britain’s most liked – and lampooned – politician, it is fair to say everything Boris Johnson does is fair game for the press. Indeed, there can’t be many hacks who don’t rub their hands with glee whenever they hear the Mayor of London is scheduled to carry out yet another publicity stunt.
Remember his infamous claim at the Beijing Olympics that ping pong was not invented in China but created by well-off Victorian Englishmen who liked to play ‘wiff-waff’ on their dining room tables? And who could forget the time he was left dangling on a zip wire 150ft above a live Olympic screen event in London’s Victoria Park. David Cameron quipped: “If any other politician got stuck on a zip wire it would be disastrous. “With Boris it’s a triumph… London is lucky to have him.”
However, it is not all gaffes and gags with Boris. Sometimes – just sometimes – he does manage to get it right.
Earlier this month, Boris led a trade delegation to China where, in fairness to him, he couldn’t have got it more right. Along with being disarmingly charming and endearingly awkward to a fault, Boris took the opportunity to do something cool – very cool, in fact.
He buzzed Hong Kong in a helicopter.
However, Boris being Boris, he didn’t just sit in the back of his chopper and look out of the window in the way most politicians do when they are taken on helicopter rides. No, the plucky Mayor sat himself right by the helicopter’s open doors and let the wind run through his perennially unkempt locks as the pilot banked and swooped back and forth along Hong Kong’s dramatic harbourfront.
With outstretched arms, boisterous chatter and enthusiastic waves for the seemingly quite confused masses below, Boris looked like a man who was clearly enjoying himself. Indeed, it looked like the London Mayor would gleefully have welcomed the opportunity to try out a bit of helicopter pilot training if it meant he would be able to get back in the air again!
Needless to say, the press picked up on Boris looking cool immediately. The Daily Mail (one of the Mayor’s biggest fans) compared Boris’ publicity stunt with something out of the film Apocalypse Now. The BBC News blog was equally gushing, accompanying a photo of a wind-swept Mr Johnson with the tag-line: ‘Action hero: Boris Johnson takes a dramatic helicopter ride over Hong Kong as he arrives in the city on day 5 of a trade mission to China’.
If anything, this story highlights three things:
1. That Boris Johnson is a very unique politician.
2. That the British press is incredibly fickle.
3. That helicopter flights are cool.
Following his unmitigated success in Hong Kong, journalists everywhere are anticipating Boris’ next publicity stunt will be every bit as heroic and cool as his chopper flight. However, rumours that the Mayor of London will appear in the next series of Strictly Come Dancing are, as yet, unfounded…
About the author – Bo Heamyan blogs regularly about travel and transport issues and has written all about the merits of flying by helicopter for a number of leading industry websites, including CentralHelicopters.com.
