"Anti Conservative leanings"? How did you guess. (Though if it's small "conservative" that's a different matter. As Tony Blair recognised, there are plenty of small c conservatives well to the left of New Labour.)

But as it happens, I rather like Boris Johnson far more than most politicians in any party, and think the Tories would be very well advised to give him a go as leader of their party some time. (And bizarrely enough, that is quite on the cards.) He's a card, as well as a buffoon, and pretty sharp at the same time. He doesn't take himself too seriously.

He ballsed this one up all right, and he's got the sense to know when to admit it. And since it is the lead editorial in the magazine, and billed as such, he could hardly deny responsibility for it.

Though it might not have been such a balls-up - he might have been thinking in terms of all the media interest this would generate, and the fact that there aren't too many issues of the Spectator sold in Liverpool anyway.

I don't think "honour" really enters into it either way.

But for all that, this was a shoddy bit of dishonest and nasty journalism, whoever wrote it. If you want to read it, and aren't in reach of a hard copy, you need to click on this and register - it's free.