PM takes helicopter for 74 mile journey to Kent – that would be an hour on train

45 comments
  1. This is the guy running the country. It’s the best use of their time.

    And it’s not just sitting on a train for an hour, it’s getting to and from with security teams etc.

  2. These are stupid non-stories. A helicopter is quicker and safer and a perfectly sensible way to transport senior government officials, who have busy diaries and changeable schedules. There’s an abundance of actual policy we can criticise them on without this nonsense.

  3. And then whinges when a green politician hires a boat (very cheaply) to get to the Hebrides when there were problems with a ferry.

    Hipocrisy seems to be the one thing that Sunak is good at.

  4. It’s a bit of red meat bullshit though…

    In a train journey the security requirements are insane – the whole track, every bridge on the way etc.

  5. I mean.. sure he didn’t need to take a helicopter but expecting a prime minister to hop on the tube is a bit silly.

  6. I wonder if the BBC with cry as much about this as they did about that Green politician spending £1200 on a ferry trip?

  7. He’s PM, not a travelling salesman. He’s got an important job to do and heavy demands on his time. Just fly him around or whatever, that’s fine with me provided he’s not doing it during an election to assist local campaigning efforts.

  8. Because he’s an out of touch billionaire with no concern for the people, infrastructure, or environment of the country.

  9. > The luxury air travel was funded by Tory donor Akhil Triapathi, according to Mr Sunak’s declaration in the register.

    Oh that’s fine then.

  10. If he took a train, people would complain about it being first class. If he traveled in ordinary class, people would complain his security details and aides were taking up all the seats. He’s the bloody PM. It’s not some 9-5 job. He can’t do his stuff in public. All it takes is for some Russian to lean over….

  11. I remember the last time this was in the news. There was no trains running to where he was going as there was a land slip or something like that.

  12. My dad met David Cameron on a train once. He was sat in first class (which was fairly empty), and suddenly it filled with a small entourage of people – one that looked like a bodyguard asked him “You’re not press, are you?”. He said no, they remarked ‘oh good’ and basically took over the carriage.

  13. Labour desperately trying to smear the first half-decent PM we’ve had since Brown.

    Like it or not, he’s the democratic leader of Great Britain, and should be allowed to take a bloody helicopter if he wants to. It presumably saved him well over two hours in the day – so he can get back in time for the baby-eating contest at Conservative HQ of course.

    The Tories need to get brutalised, but I like that Rishi is making it a lot closer than it would have been under Johnson or “legs akimbo” Truss.

  14. FFS he is the leader of the 5/6th largest economy and we are bitching about taking a helicopter. Labour or Tories I wouldn’t blame them. It’s no wonder we are fucked with small minded tossers bitching about nothing.

  15. I’ve said it before, the Conservatives are gearing up for a loss at the next election, from here on in its all about damage limitation with a caretaker PM to take the fall.

    If (god forbid) I wanted Boris back in, I’d hope things fall exactly this way

  16. Unsurprisingly, the out of touch rich prick elects to blow a shit ton of cash. Can’t be seen subjecting himself to services he likely wants to sell off to his mates.

  17. I still find it weird how no one seems to think he was at fault for paying people to eat in restaurants during a pandemic of a respiratory virus we had no vaccine for

  18. One doesn’t become prime minister when they’re filthy rich to ride the train. They do it for the vanity flights.

  19. The comments in this thread have reminded me just how stupid some people are.

    Like him or not, he leads our country. Even overlooking the massive amount of security required for him to “pop on the train”, his time is valuable and I don’t want our leader, however much of a prick I think he is, wasting time leading by example.

  20. And if he took the train they would write an article about how much the security cost for him to take the train…

  21. A train would probably involve him showing he is incapable of using a ticket to get through the turnstile without ballsing it up.

  22. yeah the 74 mile journey with the strikes is 74 hours.

    let me check…

    3 + 2, square root of something, carry the thing…yeah

    74.2 hrs + bathroom breaks + the time it takes for the pm’s aid to attach his ear restraints so his large ears don’t offend those with small ears.

  23. Compare the costs of the security arrangements from going by motorcade to the train station, then riding the train annoying the shit out of everyone with your security presence and then somehow already having a motorcade waiting for you at Kent train station, instead of just flying a helo that takes you and your security from A to B directly.

  24. He’s probably afraid of taking the train in case someone sticks him in the luggage rack and he can’t get down. Winchester, you’ve turned out another Tory wrongcock.

  25. I wish these politicians especially the PM were made to use the trains. Like actually go to the station but the ticket and get the full end to end experience.

    Getting a train in the UK is so needlessly cumbersome.

    Working out the off peak times then having to type your station in etc. I don’t have a solution but it just feels so backward

  26. I hate torys so hard but we just had someone crash into Westminster gates, they obvs do this for security reasons

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