Brian Coleman has declared that Britain’s Olympic medal are “tainted with the blood of tibetans“. A wounded Boris has replied, “preposterous“.
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It is worth remembering that, in many ways, Boris is the sane one.
Oh, come on, I know loads of people who hire taxis to carry their ‘bling’.
Tom, I take your point – although Boris Johnson’s boorish self-indulgent speech in Beijing with his claims of British superiority was hardly an example of good politics – but I think the story here is slightly different. Boris Johnson says that Coleman’s comments are ‘offensive’ and ‘preposterous’ but then proposes to do nothing about it. This is despite the fact that Coleman is not some obscure backbencher but a member of Johnson’s administration – one of the most senior mayoral appointees as chair of the fire authority. Johnson cannot afford to lose another senior mayoral appointee, so his strategy is to distance himself from Coleman but take no action. He should not be allowed to get away with doing so. If you read the article as reported more fully on other sites, Coleman’s comments did not even stop at the ‘tainted with blood’ bit, but went on to further attack the athletes: “If you are looking for young heroes and role models, forget the highly paid athletes who leave their consciences at passport control and consider the sacrifice being made by our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.” He then bizarrely goes on to claim that Johnson was ‘forced’ to go to Beijing.
Johnson should be forced to act over such stupidity and offensiveness, not permit it to fester within his own senior appointees. If Johnson is to be taken at his word and Brian Coleman’s comments really are as the mayor describes then the only correct thing to do is to remove him from the Boris Johnson administration.
Coleman is odious IMO.
I still remember his dismissive comments toward bicycle based paramedics, he expressed surprise they exisited when they were mentioned and then went on to assert that they were slower than ambulances, when in fact they are a great solution to the city’s needs.
Ah, very topical. I wonder what BC would say:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7582622.stm
[...] The Labour Councillors of Barnet alerted me earlier to the brewing storm over Brian Coleman’s comments on the British Olympians being “tainted with the blood of Tibetans” and leaving “their consciences at passport control”, mentioned earlier by a fellow Boris Watcher. [...]
It does illustrate a key Boris trait, that while he’s never convinced me that he’s a baby eating white supremacist who thinks women should stay in the kitchen and trade unionists should be fed to sharks, he doesn’t half seek out the company of such types.
votedforken – I think we need to examine these chairs – the ones Boris has appointed don’t seem to be doing too well so far.