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Winter of discontent for Boris

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Published Date: 03 April 2009
By Peter Woodman
BORIS Johnson, the London mayor, clashed angrily with MPs yesterday over his handling of the heavy snow that devastated the city's transport system two months ago.
In an increasingly acrimonious meeting, Mr Johnson accused the Commons transport select committee of "unnecessary political bias".

At one point, he tried to leave the hearing, only to sit down again after Louise Ellman, the committee chairwoman,
told him his behaviour was "unacceptable" and that he had agreed to give evidence for 45 minutes.

Mr Johnson accused MPs of "talking tripe" and of being "pathetic" as they sought to question him about the snow that paralysed transport in London on 2 February.

Mrs Ellman, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, told him MPs were extremely concerned that "our capital city was virtually shut down in a way that did not happen in any other city in the country".

She added: "It appears that you didn't act in accordance with your responsibilities as mayor and as chairman of Transport for London."

Mr Johnson replied that what Mrs Ellman had said was "quite wrong". He went on: "This smacks to me of an unnecessary amount of party political bias. To say that the situation in London was worse than anywhere else is simply not true."

The mayor added: "It is not within my competence to stop the biggest downfall of snow we have had over the skies of this city for 20 years."

During questioning by David Clelland, the Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, Mr Johnson said: "This is pathetic. You are trying to put the blame on a Tory mayor."

Earlier, Valerie Shawcross, who chairs the London Assembly transport committee, told MPs she thought it "quite strange" Mr Johnson had not been more proactive in the battle to keep transport running. She said: "The mayor seems not to have been actively involved. It's fair to say that he seemed to be entirely out of things."



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  • Last Updated: 02 April 2009 9:52 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

truthsleuth,

03/04/2009 00:27:28
We have a petulant silly schoolboy pretending to be a buffoon and makeing a fool of those who consider him to be clever.

He may be good television but just like Jeremy C. and his fellow buffoons they have a fatal attraction for some of the noisiest lobbies currently in existence. But like that joke about the IQ of 140 idiots they honstly believe it gives them an IQ 0f 140.

This lack of mental capacity makes them even more dangerous because their mental conceit prevents them from even considering others may be more intelligent than they.
2

yockel,

03/04/2009 07:07:46
Valerie Shawcross, Labour chair of the GLA Transport Committee. What did she do about the snow?
3

Dave From Barra,

Western Isles 03/04/2009 08:28:23
What transport devestation?
4

im brian and so is my wife,

edinburgh 03/04/2009 08:46:43
aye a wee drop snow and london behaves,as if a new ice age had hit
Pass of Drumochter always gets shut off in winter,do you hear locals bleating about the snow?
temps plunge lower than jordans cleavage,yet not a word from the locals,100mph winds in the islands still no whinging
softy wimps in london bleating more than a flock of sheep
and getting cash help
5

Mr. Lachie Todd,

Edinburgh 03/04/2009 08:53:04
After Ken Livingstone, many though Mr. Johnson would be a breath of fresh air as the new Mayor of London?

Boris the loose canon was even being talked about as a future Tory leader?

Unfortunately, as the recent 'Despatches' TV programme
has revealed, Mr. Johnson has proved he is just a petulant, public school boy!
6

bully wee alba,

Edinburgh 03/04/2009 09:29:06
Where are Rufus and his curiously weird wee band of Unionist cringers to claim that snow in London is Alex Salmond’s fault?
7

Fairfax,

03/04/2009 09:46:04
I'm Brian (4): "aye a wee drop snow and london behaves,as if a new ice age had hit
Pass of Drumochter always gets shut off in winter,do you hear locals bleating about the snow?"

That's the whole point: significant snowfall is rare is London, so the system isn't geared up for it -- after all, why invest money is a problem which occurs every 15-20 years? Despite this committee, the only real effect was an extra 1-2 days of holiday.

As for criticisms of BoJo, road maintenance is London is so stupidly complicated that there would probably have been snow problems under any mayor: TfL is reponsible for gritting a small minority of the roads, with the rest being the responsibility of local counciles.
8

im brian and so is my wife,

edinburgh 03/04/2009 10:31:32
#8 yes but since the last heavy snowfall prior to this years one ,surely lessons were learned,and plans put into action in case it happend again
after all london has its plans in place to protect the rich and powerful if a nuke attack was coming
yet we have never been hit by a nuke,but the mps lords and royalty are on a plan to be safely taken away so they dont suffer as us mere scruffy voters would
so london should now have in place a plan to which it can tackle large snow fallsif they happen again this coming winter
9

Dave From Barra,

Western Isles 03/04/2009 11:28:47
If London isn't geared up for a wee drop snow, then what can BoJo do without any tools, levers and mechanisms? Nothing, I guess.

Poor BoJo.
10

Deadpan,

London 03/04/2009 14:47:24
Aye, it snowed and was quite deep for this neck of the woods. I just stuck on my hiking boots and walked to work. Nae bother.

What did get to me was the attitude of the drivers on public transport. I was on a date on the Sunday night and saw the lucky lady onto a bus at 10pm when the snow was falling quite heavily. I found out the next day that the driver decided he wanted to go home so chucked out all of his passengers and drove off. My lady friend had no choice but to walk for an hour in freezing conditions to get home. Disgraceful.
11

Munguin,

04/04/2009 11:00:10
How very fascinating that the people of London have an idiot like Boris for mayor. It seems that he is great fun on “have I got news for you” but not such a great laugh when it comes to running London.

But exactly how interesting is this to the people of Scotland? What has it got to do with us? Other than a jolly good laugh at Boris’ tomfoolery and a feeling of sympathy for folk in London having this cretin running the show like it was a 7.30 prime time TV slot. I don’t think many people in Scotland were late getting to work that day because London Transport was not working.

 

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