00:00, 18 JUL 2007 UPDATED 02:41, 4 FEB 2012
Johnson told business leaders: "The real hero of Jaws is the mayor, a wonderful politician. A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beach open.
"OK, in that instance, he was wrong but in principle we need more politicians like the mayor."
And the controversial MP for Henley said in an article: "There was one laudable thing about him, and that was his refusal to give way to hysteria.
"I loved his rationality. Of course, it turned out that he was wrong. But it remains that he was heroically right in principle."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boris-callous-mayor-from-jaws-is-my-hero-491526.ampColumn from 2003:
Now tell me, Boris, said the blonde on my right as I sat in a coma at some early Christmas lunch the other day. Who is your political hero? I always hate direct questions of this kind. Of course I admire Aristotle, and think Pericles was fantastically cunning, but it is laborious to explain why, and sounds pretentious. And it is hardly original to confess that you have always had a high opinion of Sir Winston Churchill.
So I did my best to surprise. After cudgelling my brains, I supplied a candidate who espoused at least some of my political philosophy. "I'll tell you who it is," I said, rather pleased with my solution, "it's the mayor in Jaws."
"Huh?" she said, and I tried to explain. I have to say that he is not a particularly attractive role model, being sleazy, squint-eyed, chain-smoking, portly and spectacularly unsuccessful in his most important political decision. As a direct consequence of his actions, several of his electorate were eaten in distressing circumstances by a carnivore with prehistoric habits.
But there was one laudable thing about him, and that was his refusal to give way to hysteria. I loved his rationality. Of course, it turned out that he was wrong. He kept the beaches open, in spite of the urgings of police chief Brody and Matt Hooper, the marine biologist. He thought it quite possible that Chrissie, the first victim, had been chewed up by a propeller, and that optimism, to put it mildly, was not vindicated by events. But the fact remains that he was heroically right in principle.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3599720/Labour-should-listen-to-the-mayor-in-Jaws.html
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