Transport for London (TfL) says board member Brian Cooke accepts that "he should be more restrained in his exchanges" after he called a Twitter user a "cow" in a heated discussion about road funding last week.
Mandy Hodgkinson, who tweets as @JustMandyH, complained to TfL after Cooke called her a "rude lying cow" for questioning his claim that cyclists contributed nothing to the roads.
This morning, Ms Hodgkinson received this reply from TfL:
[quote]The Tweets posted by Brian Cooke in relation to this issue were in a private capacity. Board members of TfL are entitled to have their own views on issues and we do not consider that any of the content calls into question Mr Cooke's suitability as a TfL Board Member.
However, Mr Cooke has accepted that he should be more restrained in his exchanges , particularly if they have some relevance to his role as a TfL Board Member.
[/quote]
Ms Hodgkinson was not the only one who complained to TfL. After she posted the response she'd received, BrumCity Cyclist tweeted: "I got that exact email last week!! Talk about copy and paste."
Since his acrimonious exchange with cyclists on Twitter, Brian Cooke has deleted his account. Cooke draws £24,000 per year for his part-time role at TfL, which has performed since 2012.
When he appointed Cooke, London mayor Boris Johnson said he would "bring considerable expertise in … customer experience to the Board".
Cooke is a former chair of London Travelwatch, the official independent watchdog representing the interests of transport users in and around the capital. He was sacked from the position in 2008 after coming out in favour of Boris Johnson in that year's mayoral contest.
21 thoughts on “TfL says board member should be “more restrained” after he called Twitter user “lying cow””
I personally think he should
I personally think he should be less restrained. That way everybody can see where he stands and judge him accordingly.
Compare this to the guy
Compare this to the guy sacked for his (fictional) joke about knocking a cyclist off last week.
One rule for them…..
LarryDavidJr wrote:Compare
Compared and you’re right – neither of these clueless half-wits are to be pitied – they are both the author of their own demise.
LarryDavidJr wrote:Compare
Who exactly would sack him? You see he isn’t an employee, he’s an elected office holder. And no matter how stupid and ignorant they are, there is a very good reason why elected office holders can’t be removed from office for what they say or write. The only people that should be in a position to remove an elected official are the electors.
If someone other than their electors were able to sack a councillor, MP or other elected official because they didn’t approve of what they said then you wouldn’t be living in a democracy.
I hope the appropriate electors remove him at the next election and replace him with someone less stupid and offensive. But that’s their job and no-one else’s.
oozaveared wrote:LarryDavidJr
Who exactly would sack him?— LarryDavidJr
TFL Board terms of appointment section 9.1
oozaveared wrote:LarryDavidJr
Who exactly would sack him? You see he isn’t an employee, he’s an elected office holder.— LarryDavidJr
Hang on…. i’m missing something here – how was he elected to a part-time, paid position in TfL, what and when was this ‘election’ ?
oozaveared wrote:
Who exactly
As pointed out on the previous thread on him – no he isn’t. He’s another guy with a seeming lack of knowledge of his field with a sinecure on a quango. We have too many of them.
So are you are saying we aren’t living in a democracy?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4262833.stm
“We have investigated
“We have investigated ourselves and found no sign of wrongdoing.”
Hmmm, should be more
Hmmm, should be more restrained so he doesn’t show his ignorance??
Board members of TfL are
Eh? He demonstrated he is clueless about some pretty key aspects of transport in London. What is it that does make him suitable?
Chuck wrote:
Board members of
He doesn’t have to be suitable. He stood for election and was elected to office. In office his grouping are allowed to fill their quota of slots on the various committees with their nominations (for obvious reasons ie you can’t have your opponents picking your team). And that’s it.
He is a total idiot but that’s who the electors sent to represent them. Usually eejits like this sit on committees with their own party making sure that theykeep their gob shut and follow the party line. People like this do follow the party line because they wouldn’t have been elected on their own merit and only get elected via a party machinery.
The good news is that having opened his mouth and been on Twitter with stupid remarks he’s probably pissed off the party that helped het him elected. It will be interesting to know whether his party allow him to be their candidate again and if so whether the electors send him back again. Politics is fuull of folk like this but most of them just keep schtum pass go and collect their salary /attendance allowance.
He wasn’t elected. He was
He wasn’t elected. He was appointed by Boris.
Chuck wrote:
Board members of
The fact he’ll vote with the old guard and not question the status quo.
He wasn’t elected, he was
He wasn’t elected, he was appointed by Boris Johnson.
So this persons background is
So this persons background is in travel agents, ie holiday travel and banking talk about a mafia,
His Twitter account is back
His Twitter account is back up, give it a day and he’ll put another foot in his massive gub.
Is there an email address for
Is there an email address for TfL? I tried to contact them last week to complain about this fookwit but I don’t know if the form was sent.
Is there an email address for
Is there an email address for TfL? I tried to contact them last week to complain about this fookwit but I don’t know if the form was sent.
This whole thing is crying
This whole thing is crying out for a petition to Boris to remove this guy.
Board members of TfL are
Perhaps he is entitled to his own views but he’s not entitled his own “facts”. He is wrong about a basic, fundamental aspect of his job, plain and simple. And he’s too cowardly or willfully ignorant to admit it.
Also, the views of somebody in his position should be based on facts, not bias and prejudice, and he is obliged to act professionally whether he’s right or wrong. His behaviour satisifes none of those criteria and he’s become an embarrassment to the organisation he is a part of. Personally, I’m ashamed to be a member of the same species as this neanderthal pillock.
He disappeared for a while
He disappeared for a while but he’s at it again today