Anthony Browne is on the right - the far right!

Remarkably arrogant and ignorant interview with Anthony Browne, Boris Jonhson’s caring, sharing policy director in today’s Guardian.

Looking back at his time as Director of Policy Exchange, Browneshirt reveals that there was nothing wrong with the pamphlet advocating giving up on northern cities and telling people to move south. No, it was just badly PRd.

The article states:

“In August, Policy Exchange published a report on “making urban regeneration work”, which claimed it would be “desirable” if large numbers of people left “struggling” northern English cities such as Bradford and Liverpool and moved to places in the south “that offer better prospects”. The ensuing row lasted almost a week and drew in outraged northern newspapers and MPs and even Cameron himself, who that week was on a vote-seeking tour of the north of England and condemned the report as “insane” and “rubbish from start to finish”.

“Browne still defends the pamphlet and its timing, but with a selection of not completely compatible arguments. “It was published unwittingly on the day Cameron was going to start his tour,” he begins. He frowns: “We actually had an outside PR agency dealing with publication …” Then his frown disappears: “That’s what thinktanks are there to do - stir things up.”

So he’s blaming the PR consultancy! And who are they? Only Bozzer’s campaign team, iNHouse PR.

The Guardian piece, ironically, was commissioned by Policy Exchange to make up for the PR disaster caused by its own report!

This follows on from Browne’s last pronouncement that the welfare state makes people lazy.

Perhaps Boris is employing him because Browneshirt’s the only one whose prone to commit more gaffes than him.

This is going to run and run.

Hat-tip to Mark Hanson