Boris Johnson - Slot-brained, jovial psychopath or just mad?

[patricktaylor]

... Still the nasty party and getting ever nastier.

So the bicycle is still a symbol of working class liberation, eh?

[dazza500]

Yes. And the car is still the symbol of the 'fiscally oppressed' middle.

Of the twenty or so people who commute into my workplace, at least a dozen of
them do so because they either can't afford a car, or can't afford public transport.
Its first and foremost a means of transport. Always has been for me and everything
else just a bonus.

Poor people are all around you, it's just the affluent middle self segregate themselves
so they don't have to look at them. If you think the rich/poor divide is narrowing then
a weekend in Newcastle will put your sensibilities straight.

On the Tories new 'war on work' scheme we have recently employed (at equivalent £1.50hr)
a guy who had no option but to walk seven miles to and then back home from work again (that's 6hrs a day on top of a full eight hours working) because he couldn't afford a bus pass. Even Milk Snatcher Thatcher gave the jobless travel expenses
on work schemes.

Makes you proud to be British doesn't it?

I gave him an old mountain bike I had to relieve his drudgery lastv week.

And if (God forbid) Bojo ever takes over the reins, you can only expect worse.

[soaysheep]

Johnson is a horror. How would you feel if your dad/wife/son or daughter came home from a daily commute in a body bag with what knows terrible injuries? And to make political capital out of it. He has absolutely no shame.

Despicable.

[kwackers]

Johnson is a horror. How would you feel if your dad/wife/son or daughter came home from a daily commute in a body bag with what knows terrible injuries? And to make political capital out of it. He has absolutely no shame.

Despicable.

I suspect we have such massively different world views that we'd never agree, but regardless:

I haven't seen any evidence of him making political capital. I've listened to two of his broadcasts and in both I was of the opinion that he was pretty much 'on the spot' rather than making political capital. I rather think he's currently in a no-win situation since nothing he does now will appease everyone.

If I was in the unfortunate position of dealing with a loved one's death the one thing I must certainly wouldn't want is the sort of mass hysteria (e.g. as we're seeing on this site) by folk who frankly don't have a clue. Quickly followed by the knee jerk reaction we can now expect as the politicians try to appease the baying mob - a mob who will by definition be the clueless voting majority.

[soaysheep]

It's not a world view we differ in, it's moral sensibilities. It's obvious to anyone with ears his sympathies lie with a motoring and hauliers lobby. His 'cycling friendly' facade is that and nothing more.

If you are taken in by this passive/aggressive psychopathic behaviour (someone who really has no care for your feelings or opinions) then that is only testament to his ability as a shrewd manipulator of public opinion and a callousness which is beyond reproach.

This is the third forum i have heard him described as 'the most dangerous man in British politics'.

He gives himself away with this recent, frankly contemptible outburst - a brutal, machiavellian arch self publicist with no care for *ordinary citizens.

If you buy the rhetoric, then more fool you.

[kwackers]

It's not a world view we differ in, it's moral sensibilities. It's obvious to anyone with ears his sympathies lie with a motoring and hauliers lobby. His 'cycling friendly' facade is that and nothing more.

No politician it truly cycling friendly. Cyclists aren't big enough voters to make it worth while and politicians need votes otherwise they have short careers.
That he's done *anything* for cyclists at all is a huge step over pretty much every other politician in this country. I only wish there were such crap politicians in my neck of the woods. I'd welcome anyone who was prepared to even discuss let alone defend cyclists.

If you buy the rhetoric, then more fool you.

It's not a case of buying the rhetoric, it's simply a case of taking the time out to actually listen to what was said rather than the soundbites that have been reported and then using these to advance my own fairly obvious preconceptions.

Seriously if you're going to spout such vitriol why not back it up with some facts? You don't like the guy that's fine, but all your posts I've seen thus far simply suggest someone with a huge chip on their shoulder rather than someone spouting an informed opinion.
I have no love for the Tory's but I'll give anyone a fair hearing and up to now I've seen nothing that tally's with the sort of nonsense being spouted on here.

[Vorpal]

He's on the side of the motoring and hauliers lobby. If you can't see a voracious, power crazed, conniving capitalist for what it is, you have my sympathies. Still the nasty party and getting ever nastier.

He gives himself away with this recent, frankly contemptible outburst - a brutal, machiavellian arch self publicist with no care for *ordinary citizens.

If you buy the rhetoric, then more fool you.

Your opinions are clear. Please try to avoid insulting those who may disagree with them. Thanks.

[AndyBSG]

It's not a world view we differ in, it's moral sensibilities. It's obvious to anyone with ears his sympathies lie with a motoring and hauliers lobby. His 'cycling friendly' facade is that and nothing more.

I honestly don't see how anyone can say that his cycling friendly image is a façade.

Since Boris become mayor I've seen more money and investment in cycling in London than at any other time in my life.

Do I believe some of his decision and policies have been ill thought and ill advised? Yes.

Do I think he is very restricted in exactly what he can do to make cycling safer without some sort of revolution? Yes.

But to say he's just putting on a façade seems way off the mark. If 90% of the traffic on London's roads is vehicular then the simple fact is it's going to be very hard for him to justify to that 90% that he should be spending more than 10% of his budget on cycling.

[JimL]

Is 10% of the London transport budget spent on cycling? (it seems a lot to me and well in excess of any other region of UK I suspect).

Isn't the increased "investment in cycling in London" a result of the bottom-up growth of cycling in London and not the result of any top-down commitment to cycling.

To the OP I don't like Boris Johnson (can't be bothered to list all the reasons ) but as someone said upthread he is very high profile and does sometimes talk of cycling in other than negative terms. I haven't been following closely as to what he said and didn't say about the recent tragedies in London but the reported comments about earphones were the usual nonsense as he tries to appease the motoring lobby and play the honest broker (I don't wear earphones at any time).

[mrjemm]

Lest we forget that the 'Boris Bikes' were actually from Ken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclays_Cycle_Hire

Likewise the initial bid for the Olympics. Not that I'd claim those had any greatness or worth.

The tories are wonderful at moving responsibility for things depending on how they're percieved. Remember the Dumb, sorry, Dome?

If Ken was in bit longer, there may actually be a safe cycle network in that city, but that's optimistic conjecture.

[kwackers]

Lest we forget that the 'Boris Bikes' were actually from Ken.

Given he intended to include compulsory helmets for them I'm rather glad they were taken out of his hands.
Chances are they'd have scuppered the scheme and helped to hasten the compulsion of helmets to boot.

[Mark1978]

Is 10% of the London transport budget spent on cycling? (it seems a lot to me and well in excess of any other region of UK I suspect).

I too find that hard to believe; however I think designating budgets for each mode is a mistake tbh. You don't have seperate lorry budgets and car budgets. There should be one budget and money spent where it's needed.

[AndyBSG]

Is 10% of the London transport budget spent on cycling? (it seems a lot to me and well in excess of any other region of UK I suspect).

I didn't mean 10% as a literal... I very much doubt the actual budget spent is such a round and precise number!

What I mean is that the budget has to be largely spent in proportion to the amount of people it will benefit and in that respect I think any politician's hands are largely tied so it's unrealistic to blame Boris for the fact he's simply not able to turn round and invest the huge amount of money that is needed on cycling infrastructure.

I admire the Dutch cycling network but i'm also realistic in understanding that something similar here is not going to happen overnight and also that the Dutch model may not be 100% correct for London.

Getting the right network in place is going to take time and mistakes such as the Bow roundabout will happen along the way but I would much rather have someone like Boris who is at least trying to do something about it than some of the other mayoral candidates who I think will view cycling as a much lower priority than things like Housing, Education and Crime... Let's face it, ignoring cyclists and saying your going to invest the majority of the mayoral budget on education and crime would probably get more votes while telling Londoners you're going to invest the whole budget on cycling and ignore the other areas would see him out of power in no time!

[bates51]

Th statistics speak for themselves - as per, Boris talks a good game but it's all about Boris. It's the same in Glasgow, they witter away freely about encouraging cycling then spend 50 Bob trying to make it happen. The recent TV campaigns in Scotland were disgraceful.

Blame the cyclist, blame the roads, blame helmet use - in short blame anyone rather than take responsibility and sort the problems.

Is it any wonder no one votes nowadays.

[kwackers]

Th statistics speak for themselves - as per, Boris talks a good game but it's all about Boris. It's the same in Glasgow, they witter away freely about encouraging cycling then spend 50 Bob trying to make it happen. The recent TV campaigns in Scotland were disgraceful.

Blame the cyclist, blame the roads, blame helmet use - in short blame anyone rather than take responsibility and sort the problems.

Is it any wonder no one votes nowadays.

Think yourself lucky there's someone in your neck of the woods actually talking about it! At least you have dialogue, here in 'the sticks' you're pretty much on your own...