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news
Andrew GilliganFormer London cycling commissioner appointed Boris Johnson's transport advisor
Boris Johnson has appointed London's former cycling commissioner as transport advisor, reports Forbes. Andrew Gilligan, a senior correspondent for the Sunday Times, played a major rule in the construction of many of the capital’s Cycling Superhighways and has been a vocal critic of Sadiq Khan’s efforts to improve cycling infrastructure ever since.
Gilligan was London’s cycling commissioner from 2013 to 2016. He has said in the past the process of getting approval for the Cycle Superhighways was “a pretty big fight” and that he at times doubted it would happen.
Referring to his successors after leaving the job, he said: “I think the struggle for clean air in London is as important as the struggle for clean water in the 19th century and that struggle cannot be won without a significant increase in cycling, so the new team has, in its hands, a policy instrument – the segregated cycle lane – which is now proven to bring about dramatic and huge increases in cycling, and I hope they use it.”
Earlier this year, he cycled many of the routes created since his departure and subsequently accused Sadiq Khan of presiding over the construction of a “fake cycle network.” He claimed that in many areas the mayor was doing little more than adding Quietway signs to roads and claiming them as new routes.
In 2017, Gilligan was tasked with creating a vision of what would be required for cycling to become a “super attractive” mode of transport in Cambridge, Oxford and Milton Keynes.
His eventual report, “Running Out of Road” recommended widespread construction of segregated cycle lanes and cycle-safe junctions.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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20 comments
Boris has lived his life telling lies to make money and further his career at every possible opportunity, so why on earth would any sane person believe a word that he says now?
As has been previously stated even if he does increase Police numbers, it will only be to replace some of the numbers that the Tory's cut in the first place.
Who is going to train these extra officers?
Where are they all going to go, after all the Police station closures?
The Tory's have made it a requirement that all new coppers have to have or are studying for a degree, to make it even more difficult.
Where is all the money going to come from, I thought the country was skint and this is why my daughters school has asked parents to chip in to pay for a music teacher?
I could go on, but the fact is he is full of sh1t!
Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are just two buttocks of the same arsehole if you ask me, they've both got more faces than a town hall clock.
This is great news. Gilligan was ousted from his position with Khan's appointment and, frankly, his replacement has been a complete sap.
Maybe I'm just older and wiser / more cynical. But we do seem to be in a particular age of dumbed down politics. Sound bites we are used to, but nowdays it seems even more extreme, reducing policies to the limited text allowance of a social media post, rhetoric that is as light on detail as an astrology prediction and onto which people project their own interpretation. The undercurrent of antipathy towards traditional outgroups. Targeting constituences with taxpayer funded goodies for their ability to swing a marginal vote.
The only good thing about Boris in charge is that he and his team are now fully accountable for Brexit and the consequences.
My gut feeling is that Andrew Gilligan is going to be facing an uphill struggle for funding in a depressed economy and support in a media environment that seems ever more driven by hate filled opinion. Not as bad as USA but we seem to be heading down that road.
Boris forced through the segregated cycle lane on Embankment against some serious, organised opposition. I really don't think this is tokenism, nor a straight reward for past loyalty. I suspect (and hope) that HS2 gets binned, regardless of how many billion have been spent on it already - no point throwing good money after bad - its target market already broadly stating that the use case is gone, thanks to modern communications technology meaning that many journeys are no longer necessary, and those that are no longer entail "dead" time on a train, in the day of 4G and onboard wifi.
It seems that Boris may prefer to fund genuine improvements in other parts of the country, the trans-Pennine route being a good place to start.
Boris has a dismal track record of paffing other people's money up the wall, especially on his own vanity projects. He also has a record as long as your arm of lying, so I would be very cynical indeed about what smell a lot like pre-election promises.
dePfeffel-Johnson only bothered with getting some segregated cycle lanes in place after 6 cyclists died in a 2 week period and he was told his legacy would be ruined.
Gilligan was hated by half the London councils because hes a dick. He got dePfeffel elected because he would doorstop Livingstone all the time and was the journalist Ken alledgedly 'pushed' down some stairs after he called him a Nazi.
Gilligan is also the guy that put Dr David Kelly in the firing line over the 'sexed up' Iraq dossier.
No disagreement about Will Norman being a wet blanket but between his underwhelming lack of vision and not standing up to LBKC or the Royal Parks and Gilligan being an obnoxious twat to every other council, the only losers are pedestrians and cyclists in London.
Sorry about repeat posts
Gilligan got bojo elected mayor of london.. He was a journalist for the standard who championed johnson before he ran for mayor of london.. Gilligan ruthlessly criticised ken livingstone over many years.. In particular the bendy buses remember those replaced by the boris bus at twice the price.. The he was rewarded with the transport job by johnson.. And again now he is pm.. Wouldn't trust gilligan as far as i could throw him
Gilligan got bojo elected mayor of london.. He was a journalist for the standard who championed johnson before he ran for mayor of london.. Gilligan ruthlessly criticised ken livingstone over many years.. In particular the bendy buses remember those replaced by the boris bus at twice the price.. The he was rewarded with the transport job by johnson.. And again now he is pm.. Wouldn't trust gilligan as far as i could throw him
Gilligan got bojo elected mayor of london.. He was a journalist for the standard who championed johnson before he ran for mayor of london.. Gilligan ruthlessly criticised ken livingstone over many years.. In particular the bendy buses remember those replaced by the boris bus at twice the price.. The he was rewarded with the transport job by johnson.. And again now he is pm.. Wouldn't trust gilligan as far as i could throw him
I'm somewhat conflicted, I think a BoJo premiership would be disastrous for this country but so far he's made announcements on
1. Increasing police numbers (hopefully some of these will police the streets/traffic)
2. Funding improvemnts to the rail links between Manchester and Leeds
3. Appointed Andrew Gilligan as transport advisor
Whatever his motives (self serving, no doubt) I see these as positive moves for active travel.
You can announce anything you want; the test is surely how much of it is delivered...
1. The tories have cut the police by about 21,000 and BoJo is going to increase them by 20,000, so still not up to how many we had when they got in.
2. This has been announced regularly for the past five or so years, along with the "Northern Powerhouse" but nothing, absolutely nothing, has happened. Believe what people do, not what they say.
3. Yes
BoJo is no friend to the truth, honesty or morals.
This could be an interesting appointment as he's a prominent critic of HS2.
Let's see if he's enabled and empowered otherwise it's a token to the environmental/cycling lobby. Remember Bojo despite all appearances isn't stupid and isn't advised by stupid people...they are very very ambitious and would use any levers
BoJo and his advisers may not be stupid, but they are seriously misguided in my opinion, with goals that are not shared by the majority of the public, according to all the polls. He is renowned for lying, cheating and spectacular gaffes, so not the sharpest spoon in the box.
It may be that his administration will mirror that of Trump, as he does in so many ways, and anyone with any morals will be jumping ship pretty soon.
Bad day for double posts.
There may yet be some hope in this very strange administration.
Excellent appointment. Just hope tbere is a decent budget
Tory w*nker.