BORIS JOHNSON MAYOR OF LONDON TELEVISION CELEBRITY and polymath classics scholar Boris Johnson is arguably the best transport secretary we never had – or, given his undoubted political ambitions and abilities, possibly the best transport secretary we just haven’t had yet. To an extent, the very office of Mayor of London brings with it an inherent power over transport matters. The biggest noise in town automatically has the biggest influence in town. However, Boris (like Adele and Madonna,
he needs no surname) has made transport his ‘thing’. Leaving aside the unfortunate experiment with bendy buses, his transport track record to date is a PR triumph. London’s streets may not be paved with gold, but they are cluttered with Barclays-sponsored ‘Boris bikes’; the jury may be out on Heathrow’s third runway, but ‘Boris island’ – the Thames estuary airport that will never be built – has been portrayed as blue sky thinking at its very best. In transport terms, however, the Mayor’s greatest achievement
so far has been the 2012 Olympic Games. Like the Millennium bug before it, the Olympiad was predicted by doom-sayers to presage the end of the travel world as we knew it. Like the bug, it was no such thing. Lots of people on bikes pedalled into the record books, Mo Farrah won hearts and races, and nothing ground to a halt. Boris is a cat among the conservative pigeons. He comes up with absolutely ridiculous ideas that scare the life out of everybody, and then some of them actually go on to work. What’s not to like?
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GEORGE OSBORNE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER IN RECENT YEARS, the voters in the Cheshire constituency of Tatton have contrived to produce some ‘interesting’ election results, to say the least. Neil Hamilton, embroiled in sleaze allegations, resorted to ‘reality’ TV stardom; he was replaced by the BBC’s Martin Bell, best-known for wearing cream- coloured suits and being the man who replaced Neil Hamilton. Tatton’s current incumbent, nominated
by GTMC chairman Ajaya Sodha, is rather less flamboyant, but equally well-known – as the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer. George Osborne may not be directly
involved in the corporate travel sector, but his place in these pages is warranted because almost everything he does influences and shapes the industry.
SIR HOWARD DAVIES HEADING ENQUIRY INTO UK AIRPORT CAPACITY SIR HOWARD DAVIES has said his commission’s full report into UK airport capacity will be “a substantial piece of work” – and some would say it jolly well should be, since it won’t be published for another two years. By way of consolation, the former head of the Confederation of British Industry (and of the Financial Services Authority, the Audit Commission, the London School of Economics, and much else) has promised an interim report by the end of this year. Whatever conclusions he eventually reaches, they will undoubtedly have a huge and far-reaching impact on the corporate travel sector. Davies himself says that his commission’s findings will give the next government a “flying start” on the issue after the 2015 general election. “In order to build enough political consensus around the eventual solution, we will need to show that we have done in-depth analysis of the other options [apart from Heathrow expansion]. At the moment, consensus is what is lacking,” he said. Davies promises the final report will be a “really expert piece of work looking at how we think about airport capacity, which I hope will be internationally leading-edge”. It will also be long overdue and, as in
the case of the Leveson report on media regulation, there is no guarantee that the government will take a blind bit of notice.