Boris Water Cannon Ouses Money

[Gromit]

// Officials in Boris Johnson’s administration while he was London mayor spent nearly £1,000 fitting stereos to three water cannon that were never approved for use on the capital’s streets, it has emerged.

Johnson’s successor, Sadiq Khan, revealed that nearly £323,000 had been spent to buy, modify and maintain vehicles, which were purchased secondhand from German federal police in 2014 in anticipation of social unrest.

Greater London Authority officials said they hoped to sell on the water cannon for between £35,000 and £43,000 – more than they cost to purchase, but far less than the funds spent on them to date. However, no deal has yet been agreed. //

Should multi-millionaire Johnson be made to repay this money to London taxpayers?

[jno]

come on, TTT, read the original post!

The Dome was a Tory idea. It now claims to be the world's most successful musiv venue (I don't know what the criteria are). Anyway, not a standard-bearer for waste.

[Gromit]

The Dome was the most visited theme park in the world in 2000. Even beating Disney. But Fleet Street didn't like it so they just panned it forever.

[naomi24]

Gromit, it was the most visited tourist attraction in London in 2000 - but I doubt very much that it beat Disney's theme parks.

[Gromit]

Naomi

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Millennium_Dome

// the Dome was the most visited building in the world in 2000, and had better visitor satisfaction numbers than Disney. //

[jno]

here are the Dome's revenues (2013, I can't find more recent ones)

http://www.nme.com/news/music/various-artists-2959-1266499

This ought to be seen as a great British success story; but people seem to prefer to follow the tabloids' lead in sneering at it.

[Bazile]

Gromit

//The Dome was the most visited theme park in the world in 2000. Even beating Disney. But Fleet Street didn't like it so they just panned it forever.//

is a bit different to -

// the Dome was the most visited building in the world in 2000, and had better visitor satisfaction numbers than Disney. //

[New Judge]

We digress a little but the original Disneyland in Florida averages about 45,000 visitors per day, every day (over 16 million visitors annually).

Whenever I go past the O2 (I’ve not been inside since it opened but went for a tour before it was finished) it is not on an event day (wouldn’t dream of going near the place then). There are just a few people shambling around using the restaurants etc. on the site. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 45 people there, let alone 45,000.

Of course there are people there on event days, and probably visitors doing the "walk across the tent" experience and the other stuff they lay on. But 45,000 each and every day? Not a chance.

[Gromit]

Bazile
I didn't intend to mislead. Just remembered it slightly wrong.

[Gromit]

New Judge,
I hate to be picky, but it is Disney World in Florida. It was not the original, it opened in 1971 whereas the first Disneyland opened in 1955 in California.

[ToraToraTora]

perhaps Bojo will buy one eh!

[Old_Geezer]

I assume they were bought in good faith, and that it was hardly his fault that civil unrest didn't occur nor that he was told they couldn't be used if it were. They were still available if needed. I don't see he has any case of repayment to answer.

[Gromit]

Old Geezer,

You assume wrong.
Boris knew before he bought them that the Home Secretary had to permit them and that she had said many times previously that permission would not be given.

// London mayor Boris Johnson has decided to buy three water cannon for the Metropolitan police.
"The water cannon will not be deployed until (and unless) the home secretary authorises their use in England and Wales." //

[Gromit]

// In December 2010, May declared that deployment of water cannon by police forces in mainland Britain was an operational decision which had been "resisted until now by senior police officers."[34] She rejected their use following the widespread rioting in Summer 2011 and said: "the way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities." //

[Old_Geezer]

She would have been capable of changing her mind in the event of civil unrest.

[andy-hughes]

I'm a bit bemused here - they spent £1,000 on stereos?

Call me cynical, but I recdkon if you are trundling into battle with a load of weapon-toting social unrest types and looking to blast them into the middle of next week with water, you're probably not going to regard playing along with Pop Master on Radio Two, or catching up with The Archers, as an especially vital priority!!!

Perhaps the new owners have watched Apocalypse Now once too often and figure that Ride Of The Valkyries at volume Eleven would set the right tone?

[jno]

andy, remember the US tried to force Manuel Noriega out by blasting him with Van Halen

https://ivarfjeld.com/2010/04/30/when-heavy-rock-was-used-to-get-general-noriega-out-of-vatican-protection/

I imagine non-stop Mantovani would have the same effect on rioters.

[jourdain2]

Just a thought..... could the cannons be sited along the S. Coast to encourage invaders to return from whence they came ?