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Mike Rutherford's column

You might have thought that new Conservative leader, David Cameron, would do the sensible thing and keep his nose clean while giving his troubled Labour colleagues just enough rope to hang themselves with, as their poll rating slumps to a 14-year low. But oh no, Chopper Dave - read on and it'll make sense - seems to be doing his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, thanks to some classic transport-related cock-ups on the part of him and his spin doctors.

By Mike Rutherford

16th May 2006

First he bleats on about the melting ice caps. Then he helps them melt by taking an aircraft to a part of the Arctic which happened to provide the right backdrop for the publicity photograph he craved to prove his 'green' credentials. In addition to the return flights, there were almost certainly large cars to and from the airports and restaurants, plus hotel rooms that needed to be lit and heated so that he got the caring, sharing photo he was after. All things considered, the trip almost enabled the environment-obsessed Tory leader to create his own personal greenhouse effect.

Back in Blighty, he was again off to work on his bicycle. Fair enough. If adults clue themselves up on the facts, decide the risks are worth taking and still choose to use one the most dangerous modes of transport going, that's fine by me. But my admiration for David Cameron, the committed, brave, eco-friendly cyclist, turned to disgust when I learned that a large, chauffeur driven, official limousine follows him in his cycle tracks. And with him go his papers, a clean and dry pair of shoes and, presumably, a fresh shirt to replace the sweaty top he inevitably ends up with at the end of his bike rides through the muggy, dirty streets of London. While he gets a free car and driver as part of his job package, the rest of us are presumably expected to get our own chauffeur and wheels to follow us on our bikes?

And if he shot himself in both feet with his melting glacier and pushbike stunts, how about the revelation that when he recently chose to visit Chorley in Lancashire to congratulate newly elected councillors, he travelled by helicopter - a machine that typically produces around 10 times as much carbon dioxide as a car?

And talking of cars, guess what motor he had lined up when he stepped out of the chopper? Only a Bentley. He's asking for and getting labels such as gross hypocrite and being accused of not practising what he preaches with these kinds of stunts. Instead of jumping on the environmental bandwagon, taking part in cynical and damaging PR exercises and, worst of all, adopting one rule for himself and another for the rest of us (helicopters and Bentleys are OK for him, but not for me and you), Chopper Dave might like to consider some more immediate issues. How about the 3,000-plus road deaths annually, tolls, the £5 gallon, gas-guzzling buses and trains running near empty outside of the rush hour, the legality of the dubious congestion tax scams in London and Durham, that sort of thing?

Meanwhile, Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem leader, has just been asked what three practical things he suggests each of us do to help save the planet. "Drive less, fly less and buy less," was the reply from the long-distance commuter who lives in Scotland, but works in the deep south of another country called England. So my question to him is: If you don't drive, fly or buy railway tickets how, exactly, do you get to work?

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