KEITH NEWBERY Keep on saying what you think, Boris, but avoid the climb-downs

It's hard not to take to a politician who comes out with quotes like these.

“I don’t believe using a mobile phone is necessarily any more dangerous than the many other risky things people do with their free hands while driving – nose-picking, reading the paper, studying the A-Z, beating the children and so on.”

Tony Blair is just flipping unbelievable. He is a mixture of Harry Houdini and a greased piglet. He is barely human in his elusiveness. Nailing Blair is like trying to pin jelly to a wall.”

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We are talking, of course, about Boris Johnson, who, as a politician, has many things going for him.

He is one of the few to be identified immediately by his first name, and also benefits from a personality which transcends mere party politics.

This has enabled him to build an eclectic base of popular support which helped as much as anything to dethrone Ken Livingstone as mayor of London.

But in trying to be all things to all men (and certainly women) Boris is in danger of becoming nothing much to anyone in particular.

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If he wants to carry on saying what he thinks when he likes, that’s fine by me and, I suspect, millions of others.

But he must not undermine this reputation for honesty and outspokenness by trying to wheedle his way out of it as soon as someone takes offence. It is beginning to make him look and sound rather silly.

When he made some lacerating observations about Liverpool a few years ago, the then Tory leader Michael Howard sent him scuttling northwards to apologise to the poor, sensitive dears in person.

Now his assertion that the coalition’s reforms of housing benefit could lead to a ‘Kosovo-style social cleansing of the poor’ from city centres – including London – has led to another craven climb-down.

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Johnson immediately started burbling about the comment being taken out of context, which is nonsense.

You only have to listen to the broadcast to appreciate he knew precisely what he was saying – and why.

He doesn’t like David Cameron. He loathes the pact with the Liberal Democrats. And he wants to be the next Conservative leader.

Nothing wrong with any of that – so stop snivelling Boris and have the courage of your convictions.