political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Politicians & Their Cars
Does anyone know any politicians (national or local) who are car nuts, or drive unusual cars? If so, please email me privately using the CONTACT link below the blog banner. I'm helping with a feature on the driving habits of politicians.
TopGear: Season 2, Episode 2 Jeremy drives ........ On the track, politicians representing the main political parties, as well as some less well-established parties try to become the fastest political party behind the wheel of an MG ZR rally car. I think a LibDumb was fastest
notts county council's cabinet member for the environment and sustainability drives a rather large mitsubishi 4x4 pick up truck to get across the mean city streets, but he's more nuts than car nut
Dr Barry Monk, leader of the Save Bedford Hospital party drives a 1960 Morris Minor. No road tax on pre-1973 vehicles, so there's financial prudence for you
Robert Coucher edited Alan Clark's book Backfire "Alan wrote a column for me when I edited Classic Cars magazine. They always generated more irate letters than anything else because he'd say rude things about cars and individuals.
"He loved Porsches and Jaguars but hated Italian cars, complaining that they were very poorly made, which annoyed many readers.
"He also used to regard polishing a car as terribly middle-class - he liked his own cars to be scruffy - which wound up the anoraks who'd spend their weekends lovingly polishing their cars. But they loved him regardless.
Stephen Ladyman, the former Road Safety Minister has been caught speeding three times and has a passion for sports cars and powerful motorcycles. He also opposed speed limiters and reducing the alcohol limit for driving. Try him.
Gordon Brown would drive a very small car..The Ford Scrotum. It's somewhat like a Smart car in size but it only does 13 mpg has slightly less luggage space and runs only on hybrid Diesel/oil rape Bio fuel, obtainable in just 5% of filling stations. Further he purchased it on a PFI leaseback scheme which means he paid just £4.99 down and monthly payments of just £287.56 {variable rate} for the next 35 years. At the end of the term of course the PFI loan company also owns the car.
Reason for buying.. "its in the £35 annual taxation band and is very cheap to insurance. Only Group 1 as no bugger will ever steal it! Those are the figures the public sees. My record for economic competence is continued."
Ken from glos beat me to it. "NAB 1" was a familiar sight around Knightsbridge at one time. I can't remember if it was a Rolls or a Bentley.
For many years, Sir Richard Body (Con, Holland with Boston) drove around the county in a small converted ice cream van and often used the "Greensleeves" jingle when out campaigning.
Guido's being chicken and won't let this comment on his "exclusive" so I thought I'd publish it here:
Very old Guido. Iain had it in his twitter updates a few days ago.
It's also on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Phillips%2C_Baroness_Phillips
And it's been blogged about at: http://raedwald.blogspot.com/2008/05/tamsin-dunwoody-what-crewe-and-nantwich.html http://amlwchmagor.blogspot.com/2008/05/over-border.html http://leatherheadblog.com/2008/05/19/class-warfare-is-a-sign-of-a-desparate-government/ http://britanniaradio.co.uk/?q=node/12231 http://chilled.cream.org/boards/index.php?topic=18394.msg900518#msg900518
Rupert Allason had (and still has) a Porche 928. But he lives in London, so it's currently growing moss. His father drove a 1930's classic which is now housed at Beaulieu.
Tom Wise, MEP for the East of England, fiddled his assistant's expenses and used the proceeds to buy a rather nasty Peugeot saloon thing. It was dark green and elderly, and the last time I saw it was in a friend's driveway when he arrived for a wine tasting. (We're very middle class in the East of England.) The question on everyone's lips, after they had been cleaned of wine, was why on earth he couldn't have spent the money on something a bit flashier.
Annesley Abercorn (spelt something like that), the Tory PPC for Hazel Grove, is the proud owner of a routemaster bus he has decked out for the campaign trail.
Greg Knight (East Yorkshire) has a fine collection of vintage cars including one for every decade he has been alive (b1949). He and I used to go to vintage car auctions at Earls Court. I managed to resist buying a 1929 Rolls Royce with a guide price of £9000 in 1990.
Harriet Harman drives an aged blue Rover (she lives in my road) and often leaves her lights on (I often have to knock to tell he so).
Sounds like a, most unfeminist, self sabotaging cry for help to me. Perhaps it's all getting too much for Body Snatcher Harman?
Was that Rover the car she drove when she was caught driving at over 100 mph a while back?
Hmmm, forgetful woman.
Forgets to turn her lights off, 'forgets' the speed limit, forgets not to sneer and flick imaginary specks of dirt off her 'pure' white jacket when Gordon speaks at PMQs.
Forgets her privileged background, her millions, that she went to the poshest school in the country, that she's a toff and related to Lord Longford when she slagged off Crewe and Nantwich's Timpson as a multi-millionaire and alleged toff.
Harman even forgets her middle class Newspeak at times and apes Blair's phoney, flat, working class vowels.
Anyone would think Princess Pushy Harman was after Blair's and Broon's job...
CAR: JAGUAR SUPER V8 STANDARD PRICE: £74,995, THIS VERSION £200,000. ENGINE: 4.2-LITRE V8 POWER: 400BHP TOP SPEED: 155MPH SEATS: FOUR WEIGHT: 3,000KG*
Own air supply to counter gas attack; armoured to withstand attack by hand grenade or assault rifle; public address system; tamper sensors; run-flat tyres. Jaguar has now made a version commercially available, also priced at £200,000.
State cars are almost metaphors for premier's egos.
Silvio Berlusconi
MASERATI QUATTROPORTE STANDARD PRICE: £74,550, THIS VERSION £200,000*. ENGINE: 4.2-LITRE V8 POWER: 400BHP TOP SPEED: 171MPH SEATS: FOUR STANDARD WEIGHT 1,970KG. THIS VERSION 3,300KG*
The fastest, noisiest, most stylish state transport, complete with racetrack-ready V8 engine and F1-style six-speed sequential gearbox. Bulletproof panels and glass surround the passengers.
CAR: VOLKSWAGEN PHAETON STANDARD PRICE: £70,065, THIS VERSION £200,000*. ENGINE: 6-LITRE W12 POWER: 443BHP TOP SPEED: 155MPH SEATS: FOUR STANDARD WEIGHT 2,434KG, THIS VERSION 4,000KG*
A hugely powerful six-litre W12 engine beats even Berlusconi's Maserati with its 443bhp - well, madam would have to, woudn't she?
MERCEDES-BENZ ML430 STANDARD PRICE: £38,640, THIS VERSION £150,000* ENGINE: 4.3-LITRE V8 POWER: 268BHP TOP SPEED: 120MPH SEATS: TWO, ONE STANDING. STANDARD WEIGHT 1,900KG. THIS VERSION 3,500KG*.
There's little room for anyone but the Pope and his Armanis in this incredible machine. Those tall, bulletproof windows are heavier than the equivalent bulletproof steel.
Details of all of these state cars come from a Daily Mail online article by the way.
And don't forget his Popemobile. Merc SUVs are the basis of the Popemobiles, but BMW is now thought to be bidding to provide Pope Benedict's new wheels.
I hear the tory leader has a golden horse and carriage which is pulled by unicorns (not horses unicorn and carriage then). The queen borrows it offer him for state occasions. She uses her own horses. One time a taxi got on his way. So the carriage rider pressed the unicorns horn LOL.
James Purnell's SpAd - Cllr. Sean Parker-Perry used to drive a blue MG sports car to make him look like a propper bad boy, but he stuck the license plate "CLLR 1" on it to make him look more of a twat.
Then there is Roy Oldham, council leader for Tameside MBC who is the longest serving I may add - he is the only councillor in the country to be chauffer driven. His car of choice? A BMW 5 Series.
"Then there is Roy Oldham, council leader for Tameside MBC who is the longest serving I may add - he is the only councillor in the country to be chauffer driven. His car of choice? A BMW 5 Series."
I wonder what will happen when Tata motors move Jaguar production to India? Will public figures be so keen to be seen driving one then, especially as the next models will almost certainly have interior design more suited to an upmarket curry house? If I were wishing to make a statement about the type of car I drove, I'd import a Hindustan, an Indian car based on the 1958 Morris Oxford...preferably one with the original BMC "B" series engine.
We know you like fat cars, do you count as a politician?
ReplyDeleteSir Gerald Nabarro hade the best collection of cars.Now that ages me !!
ReplyDeleteTopGear: Season 2, Episode 2
ReplyDeleteJeremy drives ........ On the track, politicians representing the main political parties, as well as some less well-established parties try to become the fastest political party behind the wheel of an MG ZR rally car.
I think a LibDumb was fastest
notts county council's cabinet member for the environment and sustainability drives a rather large mitsubishi 4x4 pick up truck to get across the mean city streets, but he's more nuts than car nut
ReplyDeleteRussian Cars:
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown drives Uznutz
Dr Barry Monk, leader of the Save Bedford Hospital party drives a 1960 Morris Minor. No road tax on pre-1973 vehicles, so there's financial prudence for you
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with you and cars?
ReplyDeleteI drive an Audi A8, does that count?
ReplyDeleteOh no, I'm just an ordinary non Westminster schmuck!
'Course he's dead now, but Alan Clark did that wonderful column called Backfire. And he had some splendid vehicles too.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ken is right. Nabarro had all the registration numbers from NAB 1 to NAB 8.
What about Beaulieu and Montagu?
Those of us who love our cars miss the biggest cad of them all - Alan Clark - (though who would have ever bought a second-hand car from him?)
ReplyDeleteCome on Iain, what car do YOU drive?
ReplyDeleteI'll tell if you do.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRobert Coucher edited Alan Clark's book Backfire
ReplyDelete"Alan wrote a column for me when I edited Classic Cars magazine. They always generated more irate letters than anything else because he'd say rude things about cars and individuals.
"He loved Porsches and Jaguars but hated Italian cars, complaining that they were very poorly made, which annoyed many readers.
"He also used to regard polishing a car as terribly middle-class - he liked his own cars to be scruffy - which wound up the anoraks who'd spend their weekends lovingly polishing their cars. But they loved him regardless.
Doesn't Simon Hughes MP drive an old taxi?
ReplyDeleteStephen Ladyman, the former Road Safety Minister has been caught speeding three times and has a passion for sports cars and powerful motorcycles. He also opposed speed limiters and reducing the alcohol limit for driving. Try him.
ReplyDeleteIain:
ReplyDeleteIt's 10.00 pm and there's been no updates on your blog for a while.
Either Ovaltine has got stronger since I was a lad or you're selling your yourself to Mr Murdoch again.
While I'm on, can I just say that say that Gary Elsby is an ars*?
If Gordon Brown drove a car
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown would drive a very small car..The Ford Scrotum.
It's somewhat like a Smart car in size but it only does 13 mpg has slightly less luggage space and runs only on hybrid Diesel/oil rape Bio fuel, obtainable in just 5% of filling stations.
Further he purchased it on a PFI leaseback scheme which means he paid just £4.99 down and monthly payments of just £287.56 {variable rate} for the next 35 years.
At the end of the term of course the PFI loan company also owns the car.
Reason for buying.. "its in the £35 annual taxation band and is very cheap to insurance. Only Group 1 as no bugger will ever steal it!
Those are the figures the public sees. My record for economic competence is continued."
dulwichtrader said...
ReplyDeleteHarriet Harman drives an aged blue Rover (she lives in my road) and often leaves her lights on (I often have to knock to tell her so).
Well the poor dear hasn't been getting much sleep lately.
So next time she leaves the lights on don't risk waking her up.
Do the girl a favour and just kick her headlights in.
Ken from glos beat me to it. "NAB 1" was a familiar sight around Knightsbridge at one time. I can't remember if it was a Rolls or a Bentley.
ReplyDeleteFor many years, Sir Richard Body (Con, Holland with Boston) drove around the county in a small converted ice cream van and often used the "Greensleeves" jingle when out campaigning.
Angus MacNeil must drive a tractor.
ReplyDeleteHold on. He'll be called a "Toff" (!) For that.
Trouble is that all tractor drivers in the Western Isles are crofters and either vote SNP or Labpour.
More SNP these days but if Labour plays the tractor Toff card there'll be even more of them.
The idea that crofters would vote Tory is as likely as a DUP MP for West Belfast.
Guido's being chicken and won't let this comment on his "exclusive" so I thought I'd publish it here:
ReplyDeleteVery old Guido. Iain had it in his twitter updates a few days ago.
It's also on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Phillips%2C_Baroness_Phillips
And it's been blogged about at: http://raedwald.blogspot.com/2008/05/tamsin-dunwoody-what-crewe-and-nantwich.html
http://amlwchmagor.blogspot.com/2008/05/over-border.html
http://leatherheadblog.com/2008/05/19/class-warfare-is-a-sign-of-a-desparate-government/
http://britanniaradio.co.uk/?q=node/12231
http://chilled.cream.org/boards/index.php?topic=18394.msg900518#msg900518
to mention just a few!
Rupert Allason had (and still has) a Porche 928. But he lives in London, so it's currently growing moss. His father drove a 1930's classic which is now housed at Beaulieu.
ReplyDeleteTom Wise, MEP for the East of England, fiddled his assistant's expenses and used the proceeds to buy a rather nasty Peugeot saloon thing. It was dark green and elderly, and the last time I saw it was in a friend's driveway when he arrived for a wine tasting. (We're very middle class in the East of England.) The question on everyone's lips, after they had been cleaned of wine, was why on earth he couldn't have spent the money on something a bit flashier.
ReplyDeleteAnnesley Abercorn (spelt something like that), the Tory PPC for Hazel Grove, is the proud owner of a routemaster bus he has decked out for the campaign trail.
ReplyDeleteGreg Knight (East Yorkshire) has a fine collection of vintage cars including one for every decade he has been alive (b1949). He and I used to go to vintage car auctions at Earls Court. I managed to resist buying a 1929 Rolls Royce with a guide price of £9000 in 1990.
ReplyDeletedulwichtrader said...
ReplyDeleteHarriet Harman drives an aged blue Rover (she lives in my road) and often leaves her lights on (I often have to knock to tell he so).
Sounds like a, most unfeminist, self sabotaging cry for help to me. Perhaps it's all getting too much for Body Snatcher Harman?
Was that Rover the car she drove when she was caught driving at over 100 mph a while back?
Hmmm, forgetful woman.
Forgets to turn her lights off, 'forgets' the speed limit, forgets not to sneer and flick imaginary specks of dirt off her 'pure' white jacket when Gordon speaks at PMQs.
Forgets her privileged background, her millions, that she went to the poshest school in the country, that she's a toff and related to Lord Longford when she slagged off Crewe and Nantwich's Timpson as a multi-millionaire and alleged toff.
Harman even forgets her middle class Newspeak at times and apes Blair's phoney, flat, working class vowels.
Anyone would think Princess Pushy Harman was after Blair's and Broon's job...
CAR: JAGUAR SUPER V8
ReplyDeleteSTANDARD PRICE: £74,995, THIS VERSION £200,000.
ENGINE: 4.2-LITRE V8
POWER: 400BHP
TOP SPEED: 155MPH
SEATS: FOUR
WEIGHT: 3,000KG*
Own air supply to counter gas attack; armoured to withstand attack by hand grenade or assault rifle; public address system; tamper sensors; run-flat tyres. Jaguar has now made a version commercially available, also priced at £200,000.
Guess who forced the UK taxpayer to pay for this?
State cars are almost metaphors for premier's egos.
ReplyDeleteSilvio Berlusconi
MASERATI QUATTROPORTE
STANDARD PRICE: £74,550, THIS VERSION £200,000*.
ENGINE: 4.2-LITRE V8
POWER: 400BHP
TOP SPEED: 171MPH
SEATS: FOUR
STANDARD WEIGHT 1,970KG. THIS VERSION 3,300KG*
The fastest, noisiest, most stylish state transport, complete with racetrack-ready V8 engine and F1-style six-speed sequential gearbox. Bulletproof panels and glass surround the passengers.
Vladimir Putin.
ReplyDeleteCAR:ZIL-41052
STANDARD PRICE: N/A, THIS VERSION £400,000*.
ENGINE: 7.7-LITRE V8
POWER: 313BHP
TOP SPEED: 120MPH
SEATS: SEVEN
WEIGHT: 5,500KG*
Putin mostly uses a stretched armoured Mercedes but keeps a handful of these vast, old-style Soviet limos, built around a bombproof shell.
Angela Merkel.
ReplyDeleteCAR: VOLKSWAGEN PHAETON
STANDARD PRICE: £70,065, THIS VERSION £200,000*.
ENGINE: 6-LITRE W12
POWER: 443BHP
TOP SPEED: 155MPH
SEATS: FOUR
STANDARD WEIGHT 2,434KG, THIS VERSION 4,000KG*
A hugely powerful six-litre W12 engine beats even Berlusconi's Maserati with its 443bhp - well, madam would have to, woudn't she?
Pope Benedict Armani.
ReplyDeleteHe surely is a politician too?
MERCEDES-BENZ ML430
STANDARD PRICE: £38,640, THIS VERSION £150,000*
ENGINE: 4.3-LITRE V8
POWER: 268BHP
TOP SPEED: 120MPH
SEATS: TWO, ONE STANDING.
STANDARD WEIGHT 1,900KG. THIS VERSION 3,500KG*.
There's little room for anyone but the Pope and his Armanis in this incredible machine. Those tall, bulletproof windows are heavier than the equivalent bulletproof steel.
Details of all of these state cars come from a Daily Mail online article by the way.
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2005/12/blairL091205_450x350.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html%3Fin_article_id%3D371165%26in_page_id%3D1889&h=350&w=450&sz=34&hl=en&start=6&um=
And don't forget his Popemobile. Merc SUVs are the basis of the Popemobiles, but BMW is now thought to be bidding to provide Pope Benedict's new wheels.
Mustn't forget Two Jags and the jag he demanded to transport Pauline's hair.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Soames drives an unlicensed quad bike and gets a driving ban for it...
ReplyDeleteWhat about contrarian greenies - those who keep cars for a long time.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Ming have a Jag for 20 years?
And, also on Jags (and if you must do him) Alan Clark had a Jag XK for nearly 50 years (from new in 194x or 195x until he died).
Have their been any interesting car gifts from overseas govts recently?
I hear the tory leader has a golden horse and carriage which is pulled by unicorns (not horses unicorn and carriage then). The queen borrows it offer him for state occasions. She uses her own horses.
ReplyDeleteOne time a taxi got on his way. So the carriage rider pressed the unicorns horn LOL.
Simon Hughes (Lib Dem) drives a distinctive bright yellow taxi as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteYou won't forget old Soames and his quad bike artic now will you Iain?
ReplyDeleteJames Purnell's SpAd - Cllr. Sean Parker-Perry used to drive a blue MG sports car to make him look like a propper bad boy, but he stuck the license plate "CLLR 1" on it to make him look more of a twat.
ReplyDeleteThen there is Roy Oldham, council leader for Tameside MBC who is the longest serving I may add - he is the only councillor in the country to be chauffer driven. His car of choice? A BMW 5 Series.
ReplyDeleteArticle here
"Then there is Roy Oldham, council leader for Tameside MBC who is the longest serving I may add - he is the only councillor in the country to be chauffer driven. His car of choice? A BMW 5 Series."
ReplyDeleteHow do you think Boris is getting around then?
I wonder what will happen when Tata motors move Jaguar production to India? Will public figures be so keen to be seen driving one then, especially as the next models will almost certainly have interior design more suited to an upmarket curry house? If I were wishing to make a statement about the type of car I drove, I'd import a Hindustan, an Indian car based on the 1958 Morris Oxford...preferably one with the original BMC "B" series engine.
ReplyDeleteTry Totnes!
ReplyDelete