Houchen tells Telegraph. 'I'm just naive'

norfolkngood

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Bent has been sold out by the Telegraph.

'I was just naïve.
Fell into job of mayor.
I just want the airport open so everybody can go on holiday.
I want all the poor people to have a job'

If he's lucky he might still be around to stand for re-election, but his big mates are not going to be happy with this.
Richi might have to let Boris resignation honours list through to get him out of the sh1t.
 
I got into a Facebook spat with him a while ago, when I asked him what his plans were to tackle child poverty, which is shamefully high and increasing.

His response, like it is with everything, was he was trying to create more jobs.

He's a charlatan.
 
Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

This can be used over and over again with the government and people like Houchen. They might genuinely have good intentions but they don't realise how dumb they are. The bravado and over-confidence they have gained from a lifetime of silver spoons, public schooling and being handed high ranking jobs mean they've never genuinely been challenged and everything is easy for them. They are the useful idiots in positions of importance.
 
It just shows you what a PR stunt like the airport can really achieve, and then doubling down on that with other stunts which were even worse.

The thing is, if you speak to a Houchen fan the first thing they mention is the airport, then if you ask them if they've used it they all say no :LOL: Then ask them if they went on holiday last year, and where they flew from, and it's always Newcastle, Manchester or LBA. Then ask them how many times they drive on crap roads, or use underfunded public services, and then ask why they prefer money being spent on something they don't use, instead of something they do?

Some of the ideas he's had are ok, as just ideas, like putting the teesport land to use etc, but these are not new ideas. They're ideas lots of people have had, but the reason they didn't transition from idea to reality is that they didn't stack up financially. He was the first one crooked or naive enough to actually do it, and whether crooked or naive it doesn't matter as the result is still the same, it ends up very poor value, or no value at all.

Gonna be interesting when someone pulls the plug on the airport, which they're going to have to do as it's losing 10-15m per year. I 100% bet it's Labour that has to do it though, and they'll get pelters for it, when they're the one stopping the loss, and not the ones who commited to throwing 100's of millions away. The area simply doesn't need an airport when there are two around an hour away, which this will never be able to compete with, and Manchester even 2 hours on a train direct into the actual airport, which makes things so easy.
 
To be fair we've all done it haven't we?

Spent £200 million of tax payers money on doing up a property then giving it for free, along with £100 million worth of scrap metal and £75 million of future rent, to a couple of mates.

We have, haven't we? :unsure:



And £40 million on an airport nobody was ever going to use 🤯
 
Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

This can be used over and over again with the government and people like Houchen. They might genuinely have good intentions but they don't realise how dumb they are. The bravado and over-confidence they have gained from a lifetime of silver spoons, public schooling and being handed high ranking jobs mean they've never genuinely been challenged and everything is easy for them. They are the useful idiots in positions of importance.
See Rishi Sunak's response to Beth Rigby the other day when he had a "cannot compute" face when asked "What's it like to lose?"
 
It just shows you what a PR stunt like the airport can really achieve, and then doubling down on that with other stunts which were even worse.

The thing is, if you speak to a Houchen fan the first thing they mention is the airport, then if you ask them if they've used it they all say no :LOL: Then ask them if they went on holiday last year, and where they flew from, and it's always Newcastle, Manchester or LBA. Then ask them how many times they drive on crap roads, or use underfunded public services, and then ask why they prefer money being spent on something they don't use, instead of something they do?

Some of the ideas he's had are ok, as just ideas, like putting the teesport land to use etc, but these are not new ideas. They're ideas lots of people have had, but the reason they didn't transition from idea to reality is that they didn't stack up financially. He was the first one crooked or naive enough to actually do it, and whether crooked or naive it doesn't matter as the result is still the same, it ends up very poor value, or no value at all.

Gonna be interesting when someone pulls the plug on the airport, which they're going to have to do as it's losing 10-15m per year. I 100% bet it's Labour that has to do it though, and they'll get pelters for it, when they're the one stopping the loss, and not the ones who commited to throwing 100's of millions away. The area simply doesn't need an airport when there are two around an hour away, which this will never be able to compete with, and Manchester even 2 hours on a train direct into the actual airport, which makes things so easy.
Thing is the Airport was doing OK around 2010.
I was having flying lessons at the time and they just pressed the self destruct button. They decided to make passengers pay 6 quid to use the baggage carousel.
They fell out with bmi baby who did most of the important routes Inc London.
They doubled landing charges from £5 to £10 making my lessons unaffordable as that's what I was doing taking off and landing 4 times an hour.
The feeling at the time was a deliberate effort to make a loss and force the planning for new houses through.
 
Naiveity is no excuse. He's been a politican since what 2011? He should know about the Nolan Principles, Standards of Public Life etc. Transparency, decision making and accountability shouldn't need to be explained to him.
 
Thing is the Airport was doing OK around 2010.
I was having flying lessons at the time and they just pressed the self destruct button. They decided to make passengers pay 6 quid to use the baggage carousel.
They fell out with bmi baby who did most of the important routes Inc London.
They doubled landing charges from £5 to £10 making my lessons unaffordable as that's what I was doing taking off and landing 4 times an hour.
The feeling at the time was a deliberate effort to make a loss and force the planning for new houses through.
Bmi baby dicked the airport, not the other way round.

Ryanair pulled as their flights weren't financially viable for them as not enough take up. Their model is test the water with a couple of destinations...add a bunch more if it looks a goer. Teesside wasn't.

Add in rubbish tenant deals the local authorities had tied the airport to.

The uptick in passenger numbers was entirely due to Peel, wether people like it or not, but the airport is unsustainable long term.

It's a dead duck, and money should not continue to be thrown at it.
 
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