Why Tories Both Need -- and Fear -- a Johnson Victory; Boris Can Halt the Labour Surge and Deflect Attention from Post-Budget Troubles. but the Cameroons Would Pay a Price

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Byline: Matthew d'Ancona

[bar] F BORIS Johnson wins a second term tomorrow, I shall look back on one moment above all as the symbolic deal-clincher. Not his ferocious confrontation in a lift with Ken Livingstone on April 3, galvanic as that undoubtedly was. Not the Labour challenger's breach with London's Jewish community. Not even the kamikaze lunacy of his attack on Boris's tax arrangements -- the craziest instance of political self-harm since the Democrat presidential contender, Gary Hart, invited the press corps in 1987 to "follow me around" in search of evidence of his womanising, leading them straight to his antics on a yacht unimprovably named Monkey Business. No: for me, the moment of psephological clarity occurred last week when I read John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, quoted in the NME on the mayoral contest. Ken, said the punk legend, was "a living nightmare of repression. He'll find …