A
A CLING NERD SHRON
Guest
Good to see that the troops in Basra are giving up their armoured landrovers so that Cherie Blair can swan around to the shops feeling all important in her armoured car!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Good to see that Colonel sticking up for his guys. It would have been better though if he could have stayed in and fought the case longer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1838909,00.html
From today's Sunday Times:
The gym, James! Cherie gets chauffeured armoured car
Jon Ungoed-Thomas
CHERIE BLAIR has become the first prime minister’s spouse to be given an official government car and driver for her personal use, including shopping trips and visits to the gym.
Use of the car, a bullet-proof Vauxhall Omega, is estimated to be costing taxpayers more than £50,000 a year. She also has the use of a Ford Galaxy people carrier as backup.
The government disclosed the information last week after a freedom of information request by The Sunday Times. She was given the car in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks but the perk was never disclosed.
A Cabinet Office spokesman confirmed last week: “The prime minister’s wife has been allocated a government car. Prime minister’s spouses have not previously had [official] cars, but it’s a recent change we have made in the light of a security review.”
Cherie Blair has long been critical of the scant government resources available for the prime minister’s “consort”.
In The Goldfish Bowl, her book on life in Downing Street, she says the contribution of prime ministerial spouses has never been recognised as “worthy of support by the state”.
Opposition MPs reacted to news of the perk by calling for more transparency over her role and her exact cost to the public purse.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: “The same rules of disclosure which apply to ministers’ use of cars should apply to Cherie Blair. We should be told what car she can use, in what circumstances she can use it and what it costs the taxpayer.”
Cherie Blair initially used her own Ford Focus and the family’s Chrysler Voyager when her husband entered Downing Street. Norma Major was not so lucky. She had personal protection during her time at No 10 but never her own car. On the occasions she used an official vehicle for her own use she was invoiced.
Denis Thatcher, too, was excluded from the official car club. Despite the real threat from the IRA, he could often been seen strolling along Whitehall to meet his friends at a club or would take the bus using his senior citizen’s pass.
The cars used by Cherie are understood to have been modified for security. The most common alterations are bullet-proof glass, armour plating and special tyres.
The prime minister and other senior Cabinet ministers are entitled to Jaguar cars.
Other cabinet ministers are placed in the lesser “Omega class”. Gordon Brown is also driven in a Vauxhall Omega, having turned down the option of a Jaguar.
Good to see that Colonel sticking up for his guys. It would have been better though if he could have stayed in and fought the case longer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1838909,00.html
From today's Sunday Times:
The gym, James! Cherie gets chauffeured armoured car
Jon Ungoed-Thomas
CHERIE BLAIR has become the first prime minister’s spouse to be given an official government car and driver for her personal use, including shopping trips and visits to the gym.
Use of the car, a bullet-proof Vauxhall Omega, is estimated to be costing taxpayers more than £50,000 a year. She also has the use of a Ford Galaxy people carrier as backup.
The government disclosed the information last week after a freedom of information request by The Sunday Times. She was given the car in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks but the perk was never disclosed.
A Cabinet Office spokesman confirmed last week: “The prime minister’s wife has been allocated a government car. Prime minister’s spouses have not previously had [official] cars, but it’s a recent change we have made in the light of a security review.”
Cherie Blair has long been critical of the scant government resources available for the prime minister’s “consort”.
In The Goldfish Bowl, her book on life in Downing Street, she says the contribution of prime ministerial spouses has never been recognised as “worthy of support by the state”.
Opposition MPs reacted to news of the perk by calling for more transparency over her role and her exact cost to the public purse.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: “The same rules of disclosure which apply to ministers’ use of cars should apply to Cherie Blair. We should be told what car she can use, in what circumstances she can use it and what it costs the taxpayer.”
Cherie Blair initially used her own Ford Focus and the family’s Chrysler Voyager when her husband entered Downing Street. Norma Major was not so lucky. She had personal protection during her time at No 10 but never her own car. On the occasions she used an official vehicle for her own use she was invoiced.
Denis Thatcher, too, was excluded from the official car club. Despite the real threat from the IRA, he could often been seen strolling along Whitehall to meet his friends at a club or would take the bus using his senior citizen’s pass.
The cars used by Cherie are understood to have been modified for security. The most common alterations are bullet-proof glass, armour plating and special tyres.
The prime minister and other senior Cabinet ministers are entitled to Jaguar cars.
Other cabinet ministers are placed in the lesser “Omega class”. Gordon Brown is also driven in a Vauxhall Omega, having turned down the option of a Jaguar.