ON the spot, even though his term of office at London TravelWatch was
up in September...his support for Boris, his undoing. What a pillock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7431766.stm

On 2 Jun, 17:48, Chris wrote:
ON the spot, even though his term of office at London TravelWatch was
up in September...his support for Boris, his undoing. What a pillock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7431766.stm


Fantastic, that's great news. I was waiting for the latest on this -
the London Assembly Transport Committee held an extraordinary meeting
this morning on this issue. Mr Cooke's completely inexcusable partisan
behaviour during the election campaign was a total disgrace.

The background to this can be found on the Committee's agenda papers
for today's meeting - in particular the the statement he released
offering support for Mr Johnson can be read in Appendix B here (PDF):
http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/tr...n02/item06.pdf

His fig leaf of issuing said statement in a 'personal capacity' was
just that - he is supposed to be an independent impartial ombudsman,
and his actions completely invalidated that.

This will be a salutary lesson in how not to do things. What an
utterly stupid way to get the sack.

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On 2 Jun, 17:48, Chris wrote:
ON the spot, even though his term of office at London TravelWatch was
up in September...his support for Boris, his undoing. What a pillock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7431766.stm


Fantastic, that's great news. I was waiting for the latest on this -
the London Assembly Transport Committee held an extraordinary meeting
this morning on this issue. Mr Cooke's completely inexcusable partisan
behaviour during the election campaign was a total disgrace.

The background to this can be found on the Committee's agenda papers
for today's meeting - in particular the the statement he released
offering support for Mr Johnson can be read in Appendix B here (PDF):
http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/tr...n02/item06.pdf

His fig leaf of issuing said statement in a 'personal capacity' was
just that - he is supposed to be an independent impartial ombudsman,
and his actions completely invalidated that.

This will be a salutary lesson in how not to do things. What an
utterly stupid way to get the sack.

Not being a reader of the Standard and the various freesheets found in
London, was there much/any coverage of his comments at the time?

Clearly he issued them in press release style in the hope they'd be widely
published, are we to assume that he firmly believed his contract wouldn't be
renewed anyway?

Paul S

On 2 Jun, 18:15, "Paul Scott" wrote:
Not being a reader of the Standard and the various freesheets found in
London, was there much/any coverage of his comments at the time?

Yes:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23480878-details/TfL+watchdog:+It's+time+for+arrogant+Livingstone+t o+go/article.do

It'll be interesting what Boris says about this.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

"Chris" wrote in message
...
ON the spot, even though his term of office at London TravelWatch was
up in September...his support for Boris, his undoing. What a pillock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7431766.stm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
..
Serves the fat drunken grovelling ******* right he will have to get a proper
job now,I hear that there's a job going up at Transport for London as a
**** shovellers assistant there's also a job as a pox doctors clerk but you
have to be able to read & write to qualify.

"Mr Thant" wrote in message
...
On 2 Jun, 18:15, "Paul Scott" wrote:
Not being a reader of the Standard and the various freesheets found in
London, was there much/any coverage of his comments at the time?

Yes:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23480878-details/TfL+watchdog:+It's+time+for+arrogant+Livingstone+t o+go/article.do


Takes up a lot of room doesn't he - I hope he pays for three tickets when he
uses 3+2 seating as pictured!

Paul S

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 09:48:16 -0700 (PDT), Chris
wrote:

ON the spot, even though his term of office at London TravelWatch was
up in September...his support for Boris, his undoing. What a pillock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7431766.stm

Muppet. Exactly what he deserved.

Mr Thant wrote:
On 2 Jun, 18:15, "Paul Scott" wrote:
Not being a reader of the Standard and the various freesheets found in
London, was there much/any coverage of his comments at the time?

Yes:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23480878-details/TfL+watchdog:+It's+time+for+arrogant+Livingstone+t o+go/article.do

It'll be interesting what Boris says about this.

U

'Brian Who', one suspects. It was always possible that this was a
long-term play for a position higher up in the Boris team, but I can't
see that happening now, regardless of the fact that the three Tory
members who turned up (if the fourth Tory member had appeared the
decision would have been split 4-4 with one abstention) gave Mr. Cooke
an extremely benevolent reading of the situation ('a technical breach',
one called it, and another talked about a 'witch hunt').

What sank him for me was that he not only held two private meetings with
Johnson but then released his statement without consulting the London
Travelwatch chief executive, which he's obliged to do if he's in any
doubt over whether a statement of his is politically controversial.
That he didn't think that someone running an impartial office
representing London's travelling public and funded by public money
releasing a statement firmly backing one candidate and attacking the
incumbent, four days before the election, was controversial beggars
belief and shows a sad lack of judgement.

The issue of replacing Cooke was raised - the Tories didn't want the
Deputy taking over (she's a Labour councillor!) so there's going to be
an open invitation to current members to put themselves forward as an
interim until September, when a new one would be appointed anyway.

Tom

On 2 Jun, 18:35, Mr Thant
wrote:

On 2 Jun, 18:15, "Paul Scott" wrote:

Not being a reader of the Standard and the various freesheets found in
London, was there much/any coverage of his comments at the time?

Yes:http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...480878-details...

It'll be interesting what Boris says about this.


Indeed - especially as Brian Cooke's pre-election statement was
actually released *through* Boris Johnson's campaign.

See this MayorWatch piece:
http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/article_id-1583.html

It would appear that BoJo's campaign team realised this might not be
right, as they apparently removed it from the official backboris.com
website later that day according to a blog entry on the Livingstone
campaign website which (for the record) said this:

http://www.kenlivingstone.com/blog/b...r_freedom_pass
quote
[...]
In a new twist, Johnson's campaign team have tried to cover up the
truth by removing Brian Cooke's comments from their website. But you
can still read the staggering comments in the press release - it's now
posted on Ken's campaign website here.
/quote

The link on the above page leads to a PDF of Cooke's statement,
replete with a 'Conservatives - Back Boris' logo.


However *do* take a look at this MayorWatch article from the end of
February...
http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/article_id-1398.html

....which concerns an apparent a 'mix-up' over whether Brian Cooke was
attending the launch of Boris Johnson's transport manifesto as a
supporter of Boris - as the Johnson campaign had initially publicised
- or as they later clarified, having been questioned by Mayorwatch,
"in an impartial capacity". At the time a London Travelwatch
spokesperson stated Cooke was going along "as a representative of
transport users, and is not endorsing the candidate" - interesting,
given what Cooke did two months later.

The fact that Boris Johnson's campaign embraced and seemingly
encouraged Mr Cooke's support - even after the February confusion -
does somewhat indicate that they didn't have an appreciation of the
role of the Chairman of London Travelwatch, just like it seems Mr
Cooke didn't either. Mr Cooke might plead political naivety (not that
I think this is any excuse whatsoever), but that isn't really a
defence that the Johnson campaign can use - if they do, they would
merely be admitting the fact that they weren't clued up on this.

A scan through of the relevant agenda paperwork certainly appears to
demonstrate quite forcefully that the Committee's dismissal of Mr
Cooke's was driven by his breaking the rules, rather than as a
partisan act of revenge.

As Mr Thant says, it'll be interesting to hear what Boris says.
Perhaps nothing? One hopes he won't pull some ludicrous move like
giving Mr Cooke a job.

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 10:07:50 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:


On 2 Jun, 17:48, Chris wrote:
ON the spot, even though his term of office at London TravelWatch was
up in September...his support for Boris, his undoing. What a pillock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7431766.stm


Fantastic, that's great news. I was waiting for the latest on this -
the London Assembly Transport Committee held an extraordinary meeting
this morning on this issue. Mr Cooke's completely inexcusable partisan
behaviour during the election campaign was a total disgrace.

I agree that it's the right decision. His comments were completely
inappropriate for someone in his position and given the well understood
and publicised rules governing the Mayoral elections and "purdah".

The background to this can be found on the Committee's agenda papers
for today's meeting - in particular the the statement he released
offering support for Mr Johnson can be read in Appendix B here (PDF):
http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/tr...n02/item06.pdf

A complete disgrace.

His fig leaf of issuing said statement in a 'personal capacity' was
just that - he is supposed to be an independent impartial ombudsman,
and his actions completely invalidated that.

*ding*

This will be a salutary lesson in how not to do things. What an
utterly stupid way to get the sack.

Yes but I do wonder if he didn't realise what the likely consequence
would be. I think he viewed his comments as ultimately more important
than retaining his post. In one sense he got what he wanted and who
knows what Boris said in their private discussions. Perhaps he'll become
assistant to Boris's "transport adviser" ex Nicholls (who single
handedly invented and delivered the Oyster card - hah!)?

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!