Not a dog person, myself, so the amusement of the long-grass-kicking of another of Deputy Mayor ‘Weapon Cat’ Malthouse’s mental ticks (banning prostitute cards, Thames Estuary airport, tunnels under Park Lane, Dangerous Dogs – it’s a litany of moribund Tory big ideas really) is entirely objective. Obviously.
Dog owners – especially owners of bull breeds – can breathe a big sigh of relief today as London mayor Boris Johnson swatted away proposals from the deputy mayor of policing to wipe out bull breeds from the UK.
Malthouse drew mass criticism for his ignorant stance on dangerous dogs…[b]ut it seems he lacked support – as well as judgement – as London mayor Boris Johnson failed to back his plans saying the last thing he wanted to see was “harmless pooches being slaughtered.”
There is an important point here -Malthouse appears to be essentially a top-down authoritarian, where society is best structured with solid, reasonable True Blue chaps (K. Malthouse) at the top telling everyone what they can and can’t do. Boris, of course, recoils instinctively from that* in favour of a freewheeling English anarchy held together with the milk of human kindness and corporate sponsorship – the thought of Stalinist dog-shooting squads paid for with taxpayer’s money isn’t something to appeal to him. Doesn’t fit the image, and the image is everything, and incredibly by disagreeing with his own appointee Boris has yet again emerged smelling of roses, the saviour of dear little English doggies.
Indeed, given the airport fiasco, the dogs and the ever-present Rule One of the GLA (‘don’t tarnish the Boris image’) one wonders where Kit Malthouse is going with his career at the moment. There’s possibly the hope that if the much more sure-footed Sir Simon Milton gets his expected seat in the Lords and government job next year the Big Seat at the GLA becomes free for the obvious successor, but I’m not sure that would really work out. Different kinds of Tory. Still, as Adam found out, there’s one dedicated fan at the GLA with his interests dear to their heart. Bless.
Punch Line
For some reason dogmagazine.net think Tory Troll is a ‘Conservative Party Blog’. That’ll please Adam.
* Unless it gets him on the front page of The Sun, of course. Rule One.
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[...] the man cannot step in to do? Are there any other levers of power he cannot assume for himself? “Tom”, over at boriswatch.co.uk, has long had Malthouse’s number, itemising Deputy Mayor ‘Weapon Cat’ Malthouse’s [...]