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The Vanity of Boris Johnson and that EU cash

Tom Winnifrith
Wednesday 20 February 2013

Like all politicians Boris Johnson likes signing off on big grandiose projects. He looks good at the opening ceremony. The ego is swollen. And heck he is not paying. I have noted before (here ) how BoJo has rather lost the plot in advocating that a bankrupt Government swells its deficit for “capital projects”. So far the Labour party has rejected his leadership application. But now in small detail we see one of Bojo’s little “capital projects” for London unravelling in a most embarrassing fashion

I refer to the £60 million cable car which links the Greenwich Peninsular to the Excel Centre. It was promised that this obvious folly would be self-funding thanks to passenger fares. Oh dear. Check out the graph below. It does not seem like many folks are using it. And apparently it is now pissing away £50,000 a week of taxpayers’ money off to money heaven.

So who will rescue BoJo? Well it is unlikely to be his non-pal Call Me Dave. Who likes pissing away cash big time? Yes, of course. Someone once said:

The EU budget will never be properly policed because the cash doesn’t properly belong to any nation — it belongs to “everybody”. And since it belongs to everybody, each individual country cynically reasons that there isn’t that much harm if its own citizens quietly loot as much of it as they reasonably can.

Very wise. Who was that? Oh.. A Mr Boris Johnson. And so later this year Bojo will be picking up a cheque for £8 million from the European Regional Development Fund. Bingo. Happy days. How exactly does this encourage sustainable development? Er… as Boris would say…cripes..that’s a bit of a beastly question. You stinker.

It is simply another white elephant conceived by a vain politician being bailed out with taxpayers cash. Well done Boris. What with your new found love for the EU you become an ever more credible party leader every day. That is of the Labour party.

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About Tom Winnifrith
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Tom Winnifrith is the editor of TomWinnifrith.com. When he is not harvesting olives in Greece, he is (planning to) raise goats in Wales.
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