British PM flys commercial, takes train

[Timmy]

David Cameron, returning last night from his first trip to the U.S. as British prime minister, took a business-class seat on board a scheduled British Airways flight.

Cameron, trying to cut Britain's deficit, its largest since World War II, is scaling back on the chartered jets his predecessors used for overseas travel and told his staff to book him on regular flights. Yesterday he traveled to New York from Washington on Amtrak's Acela train.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...w-britons-he-pinched-pennies-on-u-s-trip.html

An example for our pollies?

 

[Julia]

An example indeed. I think even the Queen travels by public train every now and again.
To be fair to them, I suppose it might be a bit of a security problem when they travel by public transport.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Yes, good on him, and I agree our pollies should do the same.

gg

 

[nunthewiser]

I disagree.

the way i see it is this.

Your the manager of a business, the owner gives you a company car to use.

Your the Ceo of a major corporation they give you a chauffer, limo , private jet etc etc.

Your the boss of a country and ya gotta catch a train to keep the ppl from whinging?

happy to pay for ANY pm to use the jet to get from A-B on guvvy business..... one of the perks of the job.

 

[It's Snake Pliskin]

I like David Cameron. He seems to care.
The logistics of using commercial travel must be difficult though.

 

[doctorj]

I don't know if this is new or just spin from the conservative PR machine... I sat next to Alistair Darling on a flight to Edinburgh a year or so ago.

 

[Mofra]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...w-britons-he-pinched-pennies-on-u-s-trip.html

An example for our pollies?

Bob Brown regularly uses public transport (although imagine the uproar if he didn't!).

Tim Fischer & John Anderson used to use public transport quite a bit too as I understand it (worth noting that the "greenest" electorates tend to be those held by the Nationals, which makes sense given they generally have a high proportion of primary producers).