Conservative GLA member Brian Coleman has been in the news a bit today, criticising Lynne Featherstone for calling out the Fire Brigade when she feared that her boiler might be about to explode after it started making loud noises and shaking the house. Personally, that’s exactly what I’d do in the same circumstances, and indeed that’s what the Fire Brigade has said people should do.
But what really intrigues me about Brian Coleman’s attempt to score a political point (and he really should know better than rubbishing the Fire Brigade’s own advice, what with being chairman of the Fire Authority) is his claimed concern about public money: “It costs £250 per hour for a call out and I look forward to receiving a cheque.”
Because, you see, this Brian Coleman is the very same Brian Coleman who runs up huge taxi bills at our expense on the GLA. As I blogged earlier this year about Brian Coleman:
Good news! Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman has cut his taxi bill by a fifth.
Bad news! He’s still racking up over £8,000 a year in taxi fares that Londoners then have to pay for.
P.S. He also gets a free travelcard.
P.P.S. Average taxi bill run up by other London Assembly members in the same period: £685.
One other fun Brian Coleman taxi bill stats: his taxi bill in April-December 2007 was just less than the taxi bill of all the other 24 GLA members plus the Mayor added together. Vroom, vroom!
Update:
Two interesting blog posts on this topic:
TrannyFattyAcid, who asked some firemen today on what someone should do in the situation Lynne found herself in. Their answer? Call 999.
London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, who was present when Brian Coleman raised the issue with the Commissioner of the Fire Authority. The Commissioner’s verdict? The Fire Brigade would have judged the call and only sent an engine if they thought it worthwhile.
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What a display of utter twattery.
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If Lynne Featherstone wouldn’t have called the fire brigade, and the boiler would have exploded, I’m sure Mr Coleman would have criticised her for not calling the fire brigade.
Before I say my piece, let me make clear that I am a Tory.
I think that Ms. Featherstone did precisely the right thing and certainly what any sensible person would do (I hope) if their boiler started behaving in a similar way, unexpectedly.
Perhaps Brian Coleman wouldn’t take the same actions. In which case, perhaps the people of London would be better off without him.
I have no objection to politicians “making hay” out of the foolish, dangerous, illegal, immoral or plain idiotic actions of their opponents, but I have a huge problem with the idea that they start attacking something which is perfectly sensible.
Mark (the Tory): sensible Tories in blogdom are far too rare, get thee to WordPress and set up.
Dr Pack: thanks for the reminder of this, will try to follow up tomorrow. Nice comments from Caroline. Coleman really is a tedious cock, I thought it was just Londoners being nasty.
I think both Coleman and Featherstone are complete idiots.
The biggest issue is Featherstone’s stupid behaviour – remember it was only her daughter who actually had the intelligence to turn off the boiler and avoid the need for a genuine fire bridage call out.
If someone doesn’t have the common sense to switch off a malfunctioning appliance and just panics instead how on earth would she behave if she was in government and actually faced a real crisis?
Lynne acted as any sensible person would in that situation – she got herself and her children out of (potential) danger and called the people who had the expertise to deal with situation.
If only we could trust more politicians to do that!
Much as I esteem LF, I agree with John Kimble: she comes across as gormless in this instance; where can I read LF’s account of what happened? It’s not on her blog.
Chris, the Mail, relevant as ever, is attacking her for something that happened weeks ago:
http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2008/11/fire-brigade-rushes-to-help.htm
Quote from the Fire Brigade on the BBC version of the story makes it clear she did exactly the right thing.
Not that it’s reasonable to expect you to be fair, being Liberal Democrats, but given Ms Featherstone’s net worth surely it was not out if the question for her to do what Cllr Coleman suggested and CALL A PLUMBER???
Anyway, surely she has a big strong life partner of some description? Or being Lib Dem there’s a big element of indecisiveness in all this leading to what Lib Dems in similar public positions do when they cannot decide – waste public money.
As for Coleman’s taxi bill – pots and kettles chaps.
“CALL A PLUMBER???”
Gosh, pity the poor sod whose “big strong life partner” Old Hack is. Next time your boiler starts acting up, by all means try calling a plumber. There’ll be a slight delay while they laugh themselves sick at your unremitting numptiness and find you the number of a CORGI-registered gas engineer, but hey.
Undeterred, Mr Coleman responded to the accusation of sexism by saying: “Would a man have called the fire brigade? I don’t know.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3724065/MP-Lynne-Featherstone-branded-dizzy-airhead-for-calling-fire-brigade-to-tackle-boiler.html
Alix – or perished in a gas explosion in a very manly way. 😉
Natural selection in action.
Chris / Old Hack (and others): I’m curious. The Fire Brigade says it was right to call them out. Yet you both seem absolutely sure that it was wrong to call them out. I don’t know if you have any experience of working in the fire service, but what is it that make you so sure the Fire Brigade shouldn’t have been called, even though they themselves say they should have been?
(To be fair, I know you’re not the only people this question could be addressed at, but as you’re the most recent commenters you get the short straw 🙂 )
Chris: answer to your question is that Lynne’s blog piece is at http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2008/11/fire-brigade-rushes-to-help.htm
Calling a plumber would have been a ludicrous waste of time. The crucial decision was whether or not to go back to a boiler that seemed to be on the point of explosion and switch it off. Being stupid, blokish and blase, I’d probably have saved my house by going for the switch. Being rational, Lynne put life before property. The fire brigade have said she got it right. For Mr Coleman to call her “dizzy” deserves one of those LDV awards for Sexist Politician of the Year!
I’m not sure about anything and judging by what I had at that point read; her blog entry makes it a lot clearer what happened: ‘Within a couple of minutes the firefighters arrived – checked everything – said it was a hammer airlock (probably) and that we had done the right thing.’ If she had never heard a water hammer before I can understand her alarm. It is well explained at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_hammer
Brian Coleman (aka Mr Toad) has GOT to go!:
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