guardian | Boris Johnson has launched a bold bid to claim the mantle of Margaret Thatcher
by declaring that inequality is essential to fostering "the spirit of
envy" and hailed greed as a "valuable spur to economic activity".
In
an attempt to shore up his support on the Tory right, as he positions
himself as the natural successor to David Cameron, the London mayor
called for the "Gordon Gekkos of London" to display their greed to
promote economic growth.
Delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher lecture, Johnson also called for the return of a form of grammar schools.
He
qualified his unabashed admiration for the "hedge fund kings" by saying
they should do more to help poorer people who have suffered a real fall
in income in recent years. But he moved to forge his own brand of
Conservatism, which contrasts with the early modernising of the prime
minister, by claiming that it was "futile" to try to end inequality.
In
highly provocative remarks, Johnson mocked the 16% "of our species"
with an IQ below 85 as he called for more to be done to help the 2% of
the population who have an IQ above 130.
"Whatever you may think
of the value of IQ tests it is surely relevant to a conversation about
equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85 while
about 2% …" he said as he departed from the text of his speech to ask
whether anyone in his City audience had a low IQ. To muted laughter he
asked: "Over 16% anyone? Put up your hands." He then resumed his speech
to talk about the 2% who have an IQ above 130.
Johnson then told
the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, which helped lay the basis for
Thatcherism in the 1970s: "The harder you shake the pack the easier it
will be for some cornflakes to get to the top."
