When Boris sat down at his desk on Monday morning he was presented with a huge press cuttings file, which included loads of articles from the Morning Star. 'Why on earth are you including these?' he asked one of his staff. 'Well,' said the staff member, 'Mayor Livingstone was keen to support the Morning Star'. 'In what way?' asked Boris.
It transpired that the GLA Building had a subscription of forty - yes, forty - copies of the Morning Star delivered every day. Boris's first action as Mayor was to cancel all forty subscriptions to the lefty rag, thereby halving its circulation with one stroke of the mayoral pen. That's what I call the mark of a real Conservative - annoy the leftists and save the taxpayer £10,000 a year at the same time.
Add that £10k to Red Ken's taxi bill and we have a substantial saving already.
ReplyDeleteJolly good, turkey and ham sarnies all round with lashings of ginger beer.
Good ole Boris.
A new day is dawning !!!
ReplyDeleteI think its a saving of just under 9 grand, will Boris be asked to have a column?
ReplyDelete40 copies of a 60p newspaper published 6 times a week is £7,500 not £10,000. You seem to be using the same calculator Boris did when pricing his bendy bus policy!
ReplyDeleteI hope Boris cancels the GLA's subscription to the Grauniad too!
ReplyDeleteWill he save £10,000 a year, or just spend it on the ES, which presumably you'd approve of?
ReplyDeleteStuart, if you can get your newspapers delivered for free please tell me where!
ReplyDelete"...cancel all forty subscriptions to the lefty rag, thereby halving its circulation .."
ReplyDeleteOuch! :)
you seem to have got very bitter in victory iain
ReplyDeleteIf the papers cost £7,500 and the bill is £10,000. Either someone is on the fiddle or the paper boy is on a nice earner.
ReplyDeleteLooking at a couple of the whinging comments above, Boris has indeed already "...annoy[ed] the leftists."
ReplyDeleteLong may he continue to do so.
Stuart
ReplyDeleteor the same rounding up formula that Brown applies to his statistics? (where 600,000 becomes a million...)
Stuart said...
ReplyDelete"40 copies of a 60p newspaper published 6 times a week is £7,500 not £10,000. You seem to be using the same calculator Boris did when pricing his bendy bus policy!"
+ DELIVERY probably = £10,000
Yes thats the sort of mayor we need, one that blocks out the thoughts and ideas of those not of the same political mindset as himself.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting which papers he will be willing to subscribe to once he's messed everything up and is being criticised left right and centre.
http://gtrmancfabians.blogspot.com/
I hope he ups his order of the Evening Standard, he owes them a lot.
ReplyDeleteboris ought to have one copy of the morning star, guardian etc delivered if only to see what the polly toynbee's are saying in order to do the opposite
ReplyDelete"...cancel all forty subscriptions to the lefty rag, thereby halving its circulation .."
ReplyDeleteThat'll leave just enough so each remaining Labour voter in the UK can have one.
Anon - I'd be rather surprised if the ES didn't let City Hall have issues for free, unless you can tell me differently?
ReplyDeleteOf course any leftists may want to take a similarly open minded view about Mr Dale's forthcoming publication.
ReplyDeleteI see Boris has agreed to a partnership deal with Bloomberg.
ReplyDeleteHe's definitely hit the ground running.
It might be worth them checking that they are not also paying for any subscriptions to the Morning Star.
ReplyDeleteNo idea how much they charge because you have to enter you bank or credit card details before it gives the cost which seems a strange way of selling something.
Bring it on, Boris. This is only the beginning of your work in cutting the outrageous wastage in City Hall.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting better!
ReplyDeleteI really didn't think that anyone would be seriously overjoyed to the point of rabies as Tories are this week.
It's great fun to watch.
Don't you realise we are toying with you? Show you a bit of power and then pull your favourite toy away (cos we're mean)?
So Boris pulls the morning star away and Boris the Landaner (we can talk cockney sparrow too, you know)emerges as a super hero.
Trouble is no-one knew they were getting it, no-one admits to reading it and no-one actually cares.Nast trick though.
Everyone knows that Boris is not running London. We all know that CCHQ is the boss and Boris is the patsy.
Gary
I'll be surprised if Commisar Boris does cancel the Morning Star! Afterall his first action as Mayor was to Ban something, alcohol on London Transport!
ReplyDeleteSee yer 'ol mate Portillo has confirmed he didn't vote for Boris: excommunication due Iain?
It's not about "annoying leftists", Iain, it's about streamlining the running of London and cutting out the waste. Which, by all accounts, has already been initiated.
ReplyDeleteThe Morning Star? Streuth. I suppose just shows Ken for what he was: the 1980's Looney Left, unrecontructed by the Nulab project.
ReplyDeleteI hope further examples of deranged Scargillite profligacy will also be made public.
Greater Manchester Fabians
ReplyDeleteI am assuming you advocate Boris not only reading the Morning Star but also providing it for everyone else to read. this is not really needed for Boris to take in views at variance with his own.
I take it you would also suggest he takes a BNP newspaper too. Something that is read by as tiny a proportion of the population as the Morning Star, and advocates nationalist socialism that has always proved just as damaging as the international socialism advocated by the Morning Star.
Gary
Where are you? A different country or a different planet? I think few people without Austrian fathers could manage to be so isolated from the real world.
"... we are toying with you ... then pull your favourite toy away ..."
Who is this we? Are you admitting that Labour uses corruption and gerrymandering to gain power, so they have the choice? Do the people have no choice at all?
So is that the famous Gary Elsby of internet fame? What's he on about then? barely understood a word.
ReplyDeleteSurely all newspaper subscriptions should be cancelled as most of the news is on the web now.
ReplyDeleteAnyway what are forty GLA officials doing reading the paper on my time- get back to work
I hope Ken was getting a bulk discount, in which case the saving is less than £7,500!
ReplyDeleteGary, you know who you are, the guy who was beaten by the BNP...
ReplyDeleteDo you really have nothing better to do that write this asinine rubbish?
Even with the deep freeze state of the Labour party at -273K, we see so many of Brown and Ken buddies cropping up here. These comrades
ReplyDeleteshould host Ken a'hammer and sickle ' farewell party and drwon their sorrows with comrade Ken. In the wider world they are as popular as frozen 'so what' Balls.
Penfold said...
ReplyDeleteAdd that £10k to Red Ken's taxi bill and we have a substantial saving already.
You are thinking of Tory Brian Coleman's £10,000 taxi bill.
Ken Livingstone hardly ever used taxis.
Sounds as though they order 40 copies of all the newspapers. Better to reduce the order to one and just circulate the cuttings.
ReplyDeleteA saving of about £100,000?
Pedantically...
ReplyDelete"-273K", Norman? :-)
He must be redoing the tender for loo-roll supplies.
ReplyDeleteRichard Dale
ReplyDeletePlease provide the name of the BNP paper you refer to and the circulation figures of both it and the Morning Star. Atleast then what you wrote might make some sense.
Graham
they get delivered to the House of Commons too!
ReplyDeleteYou can't see this of course but I'm dancing a jig of glee.
ReplyDelete***Trouble is no-one knew they were getting it, no-one admits to reading it and no-one actually cares.***
ReplyDeleteNo-one actually cares that the London taxpayer was shelling out thousands for a paper that no-one in City Hall was reading???
Greater Manchester Fabians: Your blog is garbage.
ReplyDeleteGary Elsby: You are insane
Fabian
ReplyDeleteI was not saying there was such a paper. I was asking for your opinion on whether you think it would be appropriate for Boris to take consider the suggestions from the BNP as well as from communists. It was a device highlight a flaw in your argument.
I thought the Fabians were supposed to be eloquent and interested in debate, so I didn't expect to have to explain my rhetorical device.
Trebles all round at City Hall under Ken - clearly.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, when City Hall runs low on toilet paper, the Morning Star might have come in handy!
Ken Livingstone may not have spent much on taxis but he blew £30k of taxpayers money on an arse-licking trip to Chavez and Castro.
ReplyDeleteI realise I have struck a nerve but my own nerves are shredded by your outbursts against me.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the nerve?
Boris doesn't run Landan, he's a patsy.
ive me seven days and this will be the tag that Boris is tagged with.
We do Boris and therefore, we do the Conservative Party.
This will be headlined in the Mirror, Sun and Landan evening Standard before next saturday.
Call me insane will you! As Jeffrey once barked: 'I'll show you power!'
BORIS IS A PATSY!
Worried?
Gary
Gary love, shouldn't you be cutting back on the Strongbow? It's only you who believes the twaddle you write.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Mayor spent £800K advertising the giving away of 100,000 free Oyster cards he directed £5K of the cash to Tribune and Morning Star.
ReplyDeleteSee:
http://www.london.gov.uk/mqt/public/question.do?id=18423
Is 'Greater Manchester Fabians' not just Chris Paul with a new hat?
ReplyDeletePhil Taylor said...
ReplyDelete"When the Mayor spent £800K advertising the giving away of 100,000 free Oyster cards he directed £5K of the cash to Tribune and Morning Star."
So a minute proportion (less than 1%) of the advertising budget was spent via Tribune and Morning Star. Sounds about right.
roman said...
ReplyDelete"Gary love, shouldn't you be cutting back on the Strongbow?"
Thankfully the good people of Stoke have given the BNP a healthy majority to ensure Gary can never do any actual harm.
I trust Boris will take out a subscription to the Tatler? It seems only fair.
ReplyDelete