Daft, crazy and mad: Johnson supporter on Freedom Pass
Boris Johnson’s campaign has announced a new supporter, specialising in transport: Brian Cooke.
Mr Cooke is the chair1 of London TravelWatch and has just been unveiled as a backer to bring some gravitas to Mr Johnson’s campaign. The Johnson campaigned issued a press release that you can read here. Unfortunately, you can’t read it on Mr Johnson’s own website, because it’s been taken down. A poster proclaiming Mr Johnson’s undying love for the Freedom Pass is there instead, at the original link to the press reease: http://www.backboris.com/assets/releases/pdf/28_04_08_cooke.pdf. Here are some excerpts Mr Johnson’s press release announcing his high-profile backer.
Boris Johnson said:
I am delighted that Brian – a man who knows better than anyone the real concerns of Londoners when it comes to transport issues – has chosen to endorse my campaign.
“His endorsement is reflective of a wider desire for change in London. On May 1st Londoners have the choice to put up with more of the same old tired approach or vote for the candidate with the ideas and energy for tackling the problems on London’s transport network.”
So far so good.
“There is however one principal thing I disagree with Boris Johnson on. I do not believe that scrapping the bendy bus is a good idea. A review of which routes they are used on yes but scrapping no.”
I’m not sure that’s quite on message, but fair enough; not everyone agrees with every policy that the candidate they support promotes, but they are still very happy to campaign for them. The agreement must be pretty close in this case, as the press release from the Johnson campaign does specify that there is only one principal area on which they disagree.
“Brian was also very critical of Ken Livingstone’s plans to extend the freedom pass to be available 24 hours per day.
[...]
“I think that plain daft [...] totally crazy [...] this mad idea”
Currently, the front page of Mr Johnson’s website has an image saying that “Boris Johnson guarantees to protect and extend the Freedom Pass” before describing it as “an untouchable right for London pensioners”. Yes, the same policy that his transport bod describes as daft, crazy and mad.
This is not the first time that London Conservatives have been less than enthusiastic about the Freedom Pass. Kensington & Chelsea Councillor, Daniel Moylan, who is the Chair of the Transport and Environment Committee on the (Tory-controlled) ‘London Councils’2 said, as far back as 5 June 2007, that the Freedom Pass is a “stealth tax on Londoners”.
I have the dubious honour of being in today’s Evening Standard. Andrew Gilligan writes an article entitled “Labour accused of dirty tricks over ‘threat to Freedom Pass’ ”
Mayor Ken Livingstone has himself claimed at least twice that Mr Johnson will attack the Freedom Pass. In remarks to pensioners at the Middle Park Community Centre in Eltham last Tuesday, witnessed by an Evening Standard reporter, he said: “Boris will come under pressure from Tory councils to scrap it, pressure he cannot resist.”
In a video-streamed interview with a blogger, Dave Cole, at the launch of his transport manifesto last month, Mr Livingstone said: “I don’t believe he [ Johnson] will keep the pensioners’ free travel as it is.”
The video in question is here. In short, Mr Livingstone has committed himself, should he be re-elected to the mayoralty, to fully funding the £20m cost of the freedom pass from the TfL budget. That is pretty clear. Mr Johnson, on the other hand has merely said that he will “work with the local councils who pay for the Freedom Pass to make it operate 24 hours a day”. That is rather ambiguous and ignores one rather important fact – in order for Mr Johnson to work with the boroughs, the boroughs would have to work with Mr Johnson, and therein lies the problem. If we turn to housing, where everyone agrees that we need more affordable housing (even if there is disagreement about how to achieve it), the current target of 50% affordable housing in all new build over (I think) a dozen units is not being achieved because some of the boroughs – Westminster, Wandsworth – consistently end up with ten or eleven per cent affordable houses. It is better to negotiate where possible, but it is only possible where there is a stick to make both sides come to the table.
In essence, Mr Johnson has committed himself to an unfunded aspiration, dependent on the goodwill of a rather disparate body of councils, to extend the Freedom Pass while his transport bod says that the whole thing is daft.
Let’s go back to Andrew Gilligan’s article, to the very first paragraph.
“Labour faced claims of “dirty tricks” today as it was revealed it is claiming that the Freedom Pass travel card for over-Sixties is under threat from the Tories and Lib-Dems.”
I don’t think it’s dirty tricks. When a mayoral candidate announces, shortly before the election, that he has a new supporter, specialising in transport, and sends out a press release in which that supporter calls the Freedom Pass policy daft, crazy and mad, it seems pretty reasonable for Labour to want to point this out to voters in London.
The Freedom Pass allows pensioners – far too often amongst the poorest in society – to travel around London for all their daily tasks. Often, these include childcare, looking after grandkids while parents are at work. To penalise grandparents for doing this by restricting the Freedom Pass to after 0930 – well after parents will have left for work – seems unfair and unnecessary.
You can read more on this story on Ken’s website.
xD.
1 – formerly the Association of London Government.
2 – in abeyance
April 29th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Tch tch.
How desperate can Labour get?
With only hours left before we can finally kick that liar Livingstone into touch, the left-leaning bloggers are resorting to stirring their own pots of bullshit.
It is in no way acceptable in any election, let alone one as serious as for the future leader of London, to put lies out there and to continue the sort of dirty tricks campaign Livingstone has honed to a dark art!
To borrow a Boris phrase, to say that the Mayor-in-waiting will go back on his word to retain the Freedom Pass, is absolute codswallop!
April 29th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Huh?
I’m sorry, Roger, but you have completely lost me. Livingstone said Johnson wouldn’t protect the freedom pass. Johnson has repeatedly said not only that he would, but that he would extend it. Johnson then announces that Cooke is supporting him on transport and in the press release, Cooke describes extending the Freedom Pass as “daft”, “crazy” and “mad”.
That is not dirty tricks. That is telling voters what your opponents’ approved supporters think. Meanwhile, the Johnson camp accuses the Livingstone side of ‘dirty tricks’. Yes, that sound you can hear is irony dying. The trickery has been on the side of the Johnson team, replacing the press release in which Cooke decried extending the Freedom Pass with a poster saying that Johnson supports it!
Now, I made a series of points in the above post – freedom pass, Tory history on the issue, bendy buses – that you have singularly failed to answer. Do I assume that you concede defeat?