Boris Johnson, Cycling Activist Extraordinaire

How did I never see who the true enemy of the motorist was?

In case you missed it, last week BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg announced she will interview Boris Johnson on 3rd October.

The former PM is there to promote his new book Unleashed, which I’ve already messaged the family WhatsApp about:

Johnson is the only thing I agree with Alastair Campbell on - when he says he’s a LIAR. It’s just, I think this for different reasons AND I don’t have fire coming out of my nostrils.

My main gripe is that Johnson pretends to be this character from The Fast Show:

When he is more like a vegan non-binary SOAS student - just look at his record on migration and asylum. We can thank Mr Cosplay Churchill for de facto open borders (my longer piece here for The Critic).

My reason for thinking Johnson was an atrocious Prime Minister - even worse than Tony Blair! - grows all the time.

Recently it’s dawned on me just how responsible Johnson is for cycling activism in the UK; that he may even have been the original cycling loon.

Although most people are vaguely aware that Johnson likes cycling - eg “Boris Bikes” and the fact he’s often been photographed doing it around London - I’m not sure he’s put into the same category as, say, Jeremy Vine.

Being brutal I suspect it’s because “cycling fanatic” conjures up that sort of wiry man (with a ridiculous camera on his head) - which Johnson is not.

Johnson’s fanaticism shows up most obviously in taxpayer bills.

Look at the increase in spending for Sustrans - “the charity making it easier for everyone to walk, wheel and cycle” - between 2019 (when Johnson became Prime Minister) to 2020. Grants shot up from £461k to £44.35 million!

More in The Daily Sceptic today, incidentally:

In the past I used to think it was Grant Shapps’ fault that the Government was spending so much on cycling, who was Transport Secretary in the Johnson era, because he’s a bit wet and One Nation-y.

Even when people pointed out to me that Johnson pushed through ULEZ, which I certainly disapproved of - it still didn’t hit me just how mad he is about cycling…

For instance, it was Johnson who invented London’s “Cycling Czar” position - one of the worst political roles EVER invented (in the whole of history) - never mind that he appointed this man below, who looks just as normal as you’d expect a cycling fanatic to be:

That’s Andrew Gilligan - whose appearance reminds me of the current cycling Czar Will Norman (paid £110,000-£114,999 per year), as well as every male cyclist in London:

Like Norman (who has a PhD in Politics, Migration and Transfrontier Conservation in the Mozambican Villages of the Mozambique-South Africa Borderland), I have no idea what was on Gilligan’s CV which singled him out to be a transport adviser. “Ah, Sunday Times correspondent; you’ll be perfect to redesign the infrastructure of the Capital > whole UK!”

Gilligan worked for Johnson as Mayor (from 2013-2016) and became his policy adviser on transport and infrastructure when he was PM - as well as Rishi Sunak’s (thus he was in that role from 2019-22).

Gilligan is said to be behind the decision to cull HS2. As the FT put it:

With the cost spiralling upwards, Johnson in 2021 scrapped the eastern leg from Birmingham to Leeds, a move that HS2 managers blamed on Gilligan’s influence.

He doesn’t exactly come across as Mr Popular:

Another rail industry official said Gilligan’s relations with HS2 management started out badly and only worsened. “In the meetings with him he would just pick holes in the project, endlessly, there was nothing constructive,” they said.

…

“Anything I could say about Andrew Gilligan would be unprintable,” said one former HS2 executive.

In recent times Gilligan wrote for The Guardian about LTNs, which he naturally endorsed. He began the piece:

“Here are four words you might not expect from me, as a former Conservative aide, so make the most of them: Louise Haigh is right.”

But that’s exactly what you WOULD expect from Gilligan - because Johnson’s insane transport plan sounds near identical to the insane one announced by Labour - even though Haigh claimed it was “unprecedented”. God help us if Labour want to spend more than this (see Johnson’s 2020 press release):

Compare and contrast Johnson’s policies to Labour’s now:

Conservatives, 2020:

Tackling the causes of ill health, not just the symptoms, is vital to help reduce demand on the NHS, and taking up cycling has been proven to offer huge benefits for people’s physical and mental health.

Labour, 2024:

A national network of safe cycle routes could cut GP appointments “by hundreds of thousands, if not millions a year” by helping people incorporate more physical activity into their lives, according to Louise Haigh, who also sits on the government’s health mission delivery board.

Conservatives, 2020:

Transforming infrastructure through building thousands of miles of protected cycle routes in towns and cities; setting higher standards for cycling infrastructure, to be overseen by a new inspectorate; and improving the National Cycle Network

Labour, 2024:

This strategy will include long-term funding settlements, which Haigh says will save money and improve the consistency of transport networks, particularly walking and cycling routes, including the National Cycle Network, which is run by the charity Sustrans.

There are, at the very least, overlaps. Never mind that Sadiq Khan followed the ULEZ template Johnson created.

You could really look into the crossover a number of ways; that it’s evidence Labour is hopeless and has no ideas.

OR it’s yet more proof that Johnson was a secret SOAS student.

Both are probably true.

Either way, Cyclist (2020) knew the truth:

More:

Plus, catch me in Laura Dodsworth’s Substack today:

Woke Waste: Uncovering the Price of Public Absurdity.