Tony's Taxis

This story about misuse of Tony’s Taxis (aka the Queens Flight) by Government Ministers would have had little mileage if the Government tried to come up with some sensible answers instead of just overspun claptrap.

The basic premise starts from an analysis that Tony Blair has used Queens Flight 299 times at a total cost of £467,000. Effectively this means that each flight costs £1562. That cost is simply not believable.

The next justification is that John Major and Margaret Thatcher used the Queens flight for their holidays. I can actually see the point of that – and I would not begrudge TB the use of a private plane to fly abroad – but that is an average of @75 trips a year – which means that TB is flying overseas (or back) less than once every 5 days. Is that plausible?

The Margaret Beckett thing is even worse. The justification is; a. That flying is cheaper than a hotel and; b. that it ensures she is better prepared and rested for high profile meetings the next day.

Whilst the first statement is rubbish, there might be some truth in the second. But if that is the case, why is she flying so often to East Midlands Airport (conveniently close to her constituency) rather than to RAF Northolt – which is far closer to London? A Queens Flight plane would have to return to its base at RAF Northolt after dropping Ms Beckett off at home anyway – so the detour adds to both cost and emissions.

It would be interesting to see the answers to the following questions:

1. How are the costs of Government Flights calculated? Who in the Queens Flight provided the costs and were the figures amended by No 10 or other Special Advisers prior to publication?
2. What were Margaret Beckett’s appointments the day after each flight?
3. On what basis have the Carbon emissions been calculated and offset?

I hope the Conservatives, and Chris Grayling in particular, keep digging on this.