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news
Boris Johnson briefingBoris Johnson took ‘completely unnecessary’ helicopter trip to promote cycling scheme
Boris Johnson has been branded a hypocrite for taking a short helicopter flight from London to the West Midlands to promote a local bike hire scheme.
The train journey would have taken him just over two hours.
Critics branded the flight 'completely unnecessary' and said it cast serious doubt on the sincerity of the prime minister’s promise to fight the climate crisis.
Johnson took the 50-minute helicopter ride in a Sikorsky S-76C on 5 May, departing from north-west London and landing at Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green airport.
He then travelled to Stourbridge to meet Andy Street, who was subsequently re-elected as West Midlands metro mayor.
“Great to show the PM around Stourbridge by bike,” Street tweeted.
Great to show the PM around Stourbridge by bike as well as visiting local businesses & residents
Having Govt's support over the past 4 years has been key to driving investment & jobs so I hope I'll have the opportunity to continue to fight for our regionhttps://t.co/GDymh329gt
— Andy Street (@andy4wm) May 5, 2021
Johnson and Street used bicycles from the West Midlands Cycle Hire scheme during the trip and were pictured cycling along a canal together.
The helicopter Johnson flew in is registered to the digger manufacturer JCB, whose chairman is the billionaire Tory peer and frequent donor to the Conservative party Lord Bamford, The Guardian reports.
The prime minister also used a helicopter to travel to Wolverhampton on 19 April, landing at a local golf club. During the visit, he took the controls of a tram at the West Midlands Metro depot in Wednesbury.
This isn't the first time Johnson has been criticised for flying short distances.
In December 2019, while campaigning for the general election, he took a private jet from Doncaster to Darlington, which are less than one hour apart by train.
Leo Murray, a co-director at the climate charity Possible, said: “The prime minister’s decision to travel by helicopter and private jet for election campaigns on trips that could easily have been made by train is very troubling.
"He either does not understand the implications of the climate targets he has signed Britain up to, or he is not serious about doing what needs to be done to meet them.
“Imagine the positive message [travelling by train] would have sent to the British public about public transport use post-Covid.
“It really casts doubt on the sincerity of the recent, very welcome messages from the government about the climate crisis.”
Johnson has made action on the climate crisis a central part of his agenda, promising green jobs to 'level up' deprived areas.
On 6 May, Johnson told other world leaders that the climate crisis would be 'right at the heart of the agenda' of the G7 summit in Cornwall this summer, which he claimed would be 'completely carbon neutral'.
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, said: “Boris Johnson taking a private helicopter from London to the West Midlands is clearly completely unnecessary.
“But beyond the prime minister’s personal actions, it’s the government’s hypocrisy on spending and legislating to tackle the climate crisis that really concerns me.
“Johnson has said he wants to cut taxes on domestic flights. It shouldn’t be cheaper to fly in the UK than to take the train, but our overpriced, privatised rail system means that it often it is.”
A Conservative party spokesman said: “It has long been the case that party leaders make visits across the country during election campaigns using a wide variety of transport.
"Such visits are an important part of the democratic process, so politicians, including prime ministers, can visit as many places as possible within time constraints.
“Under this Conservative government, we’ve reduced carbon emissions faster than any other G7 country, are producing a record amount of electricity from renewable sources and are a world leader in offshore wind."
Latest Comments
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Try and get rid of the negative associations around carbon and pressfit. Carbon frames are no more troublesome than metal, and pressfit is no more...
- r32hoo 4 hours 19 min ago
The first generation CHPT3 items made in concert with Castelli were fantastic quality, and when purchased on sale were a reasonable investment. I...
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Theres not one scrap of self-help among drivers is there, it's always someone else's issue.
- Simon E 8 hours 16 min ago
Oh dear. A single bike in a single size in one shop is not indicative of the entire UK market for bicycles. And the slump isn't just bikes, it's...
- hawkinspeter 11 hours 8 min ago
Ridiculed or is it just jealousy?
- Rendel Harris 11 hours 34 min ago
Thank goodness for that. I don't suppose anyone would want you to. You certainly behave like one though.
- Eton Rifle 11 hours 42 min ago
You do see some utterly ridiculous examples of car use....
- Eton Rifle 12 hours 4 min ago
Exactly. Every road death is a tragedy but this is at the "twat deserved it" end of the spectrum, looking at the state of that car.
- Rendel Harris 12 hours 12 min ago
I'm not the editor of this article, nor indeed of anything on this website. One would have thought that didn't require explaining.
- Eton Rifle 12 hours 12 min ago
I think the answer is in your question. I genuinely didn't know he was married to her. It does kinda explain it. Disappointing, nevertheless.
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43 comments
Boris Johnson is unnecessary. Boris Johnson doesn't give a f*ck about anything other than Boris Johnson.
"He either does not understand the implications of the climate targets he has signed Britain up to, or he is not serious about doing what needs to be done to meet them.”
It's more likely to be "both".
With an added bit of self-interest/self-promotion, and called-in favours from anonymous donors for the "free" (but no doubt enjoyable) chopper ride.
"Such visits are an important part of the democratic process, so politicians, including prime ministers, can visit as many places as possible within time constraints."
I'd be quite happy if he didn't visit so many places, especially any near me.
“Under this Conservative government, we’ve reduced carbon emissions faster than any other G7 country......"
Because we've exported all our manufacturing to China, and we buy all the Chinese products so we've actually created more emissions because of the distance they are transported to us. But hey, Boris rides a bike, so that's ok then.
And, straight out of the blocks is our resident #ToryScum apologist in a pathetic attempt to defend the blatant hypocrisy of the bumbling clown pretending to be PM.
Personal attacks on the internet. Very mature.
Stop making personal attacks says someone ending their comment with a personal attack.
For the record, Nigel Garrage is a #ToryScum apologist, that's simply a statement of fact.
calling someone scum is a personal attack
referring to a specific action as immature is a comment on a particular action, not a personal attack.
Hence in the commons it is ok to call a statement a lie, buit it is not ok to call a member a liar.
In fairness he didn't call him scum, he called him a #toryscum apologist....
yeah, I read that as toryscum and apologist, rather than the perhaps intended apologist FOR toryscum.
"You apology for toryscum!"
Ouch
Whereas you represent the kinder, gentler politics this country so desperately needs.
Careful now.
Road.cc don't tolerate personal abuse in the comments.
I'm sure the moderators will be along any second now...
It's not abusive if it's directed at 'that group'.
As any fool knows.
I'm not really offended by some keyboard warrior throwing insults around either.
Personally I think we would all benefit if political discussions could be kept civil but that doesn't appear to be the world we live in anymore.
I very much doubt we'll ever see the equal application of the rules on this particular forum but I will continue to issue gentle reminders.
Isn't he a PM pretending to be bumbling clown? Lots of people fall for the act and don't realise that he's a power hungry, self-serving, moral vaccuum.
Exactly.
"Boris" is a character created for public consumption by Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson.
Fastest, probably. Most efficient? He probably got less than 2.5 MPG (over 100 L/100 km,) and that not counting if the helicopter flew from somewhere to collect him.
Unfortunately, this is a continuation of the current government failing to lead by example. Parliament declared a climate emergency 2 years ago and this should now inform all decision making.
He should have taken a coach with some memorable lie printed on the sides...
That wasn't a lie was it? I would have thought since Brexit the tories would have had upped investment in the NHS by an equivalent amount. Must confess I hadn't bothered to check as they are all men of their word, as we know......
Marcus Ball took Boris to court over this and Boris won. Further, the NHS has been given £280B because of the pandemic. how much of that funding will be permanent is currently unknown, but:
A) It's more than £350M a week.
B) Saying "let's fund the NHS instead" does not mean it should receive all £350M. It's a shame that this still has to be explained after 5 years to people, and this is why Marcus Ball lost his court case.
EDIT: The NHS is indeed receiving a boost of more than £350M a week - https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
What's your point?
Wow, Tory government not only planning ahead (switch), but also doing it in the knowledge there was to be a pandemic coming up. Just as well we left the EU in time for that eh...
you've just said that it would be unknown.....
We already knew that. It's a shame that even 5 years later some folk don't get that they've been had......
Why thankyou Brexit! it couldn't/wouldn't have happened without you....
No, there was no winning or losing as the High Court decided that the Private Prosecution couldn't be brought as the laws did not cover false statements by MP's as Parliament didn't cover that in the act on lying during campaigning. And the lie was there from the act of how much was sent out in real terms AND the insinuation it was all meant for the NHS otherwise why have that in very large writing on the side of the bus and not just writing US.
I'm not sure where the NHS has gotten £280 billion figure for Covid has come from as of the £340Bil spent, half has gone on Furlough payments unless you think thay is NHS spending.
And the link you sent through is again only on Covid funding, yet it shows without that it has only gone up £12billion since 2015 where it should have gone up 18.2 billion a year with the full £350mill.
Unless i've misread: "In July 2018, the Prime Minister announced a new five-year funding deal that would see NHS funding rise by £33.9 billion in cash terms (ie, not adjusted for inflation) by 2023/24 compared to 2018/19, a rate of increase that is closer to, but still lower than, the long-term average."
Unless i've misread that as being £33.9B spread over 5 years.
That being said - the NHS is getting £394M extra a week from 2023 according to this older source, so it seems they've increased it again and it will be more than Theresa May announced: https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-england-394-million-more/
The last line in your italics is key. It is keeping with the long term average rises but is still less then that which was about 3.4%. But the Governement can say "we are doubling the spending into the nhs" from 10 years ago but I doubt they will say "because we brought it down to an average of 1.4% for 10 years due to Austerity".
It will also be interesting if the funding rises do go ahead as they have already reneged on the promised pay rises to the Nurses and lower NHS staff due to Austerity 2.0.
It does mention in the fullfact that the EU funding was less then the £350 million and we will only have a net sum of £10bill from 21 onwards. They mention that any extra spending in the NHS will need to come from "from increased taxes, increased borrowing, or reducing spending on something else". And bearing in mind this was well before Covid expeditures which the Corporate Tax rise is there to cover (which was not going to happen otherwise). So which Peter is losing out for Paul? Or are the Government being massive borrowers now (which was traditionally a Labour Policy).
Maybe you should have actually read that full fact article. Direct quote:
"There is no guaranteed extra money to pay for this increased NHS funding from stopping our payments to the EU budget. Other costs associated with Brexit are expected to outweigh the savings."
In other words, the additional funding for the NHS is sod-all to do with Brexshit, because the EU contributions we were making have been dwarfed by the massive costs of leaving.
Indeed that would be impossible, as the UK contribution to the EU was never £350m a week, closer to £260m a week after rebate, with about half of that amount being spent in the UK by the EU, on things which the government will need to fund going forward unless they are going to be cut. Such as agriculture subsidies.
Either way it is quite clear te NHS funding has not benefitied from leaving the EU as implied in your post and on the bus, because government revenues are siginificantly down and yet funding for the NHS has been found, because it had to be. Any boost in NHS funding during this health crisis is not relevant in the discussion on brexit campaign claims
The net contribution to the EU ammounts to around £3 per adult per week, and the cost of leaving has exceeded that many times
well maybe if there was some kind of high speed rail link for passengers to use to the west midlands...
There is.
Euston to Wolverhampton in under 2 hours. He could do some work, take phone calls or whatever while travelling. Producing much lower emissions and us taxpayers would have paid a lot less for him to sit in first class than the helicopter ride (which is also a far more dangerous form of transport).
I can't believe a bike hire scheme is worthy of a visit anyway. Nice though it is, there are far more urgent and worthwhile things for the PM to give attention to, as hawkinspeter has said.
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