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from the Betteridge-says-No...-how-about-you? dept.
Boris Johnson recently suggested that the UK could construct a bridge to France, which would cross the English Channel and span at least 20.7 miles (33.3 km):
Mr. Johnson, the British foreign secretary, raised the notion in a summit meeting with French officials on Thursday, according to people briefed on the talks. The two nations agreed to convene a panel to explore big projects, and Mr. Johnson wrote on Twitter: "Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections. Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?" The idea generated extensive news coverage and even more ample mockery on social media, where the hashtag #BorisBridge quickly gained popularity.
[...] In 1930, the British Parliament only narrowly rejected a proposed tunnel, and in the 1960s, officials in both countries confidently declared that construction of some kind of crossing was imminent.
But in an island nation whose best defense against continental armies has always been the Channel, generations of military and political leaders saw proposed bridges and tunnels as potential invasion routes. Lately, the Channel Tunnel has beckoned intruders of a different sort: migrants from Africa and the Middle East hoping to reach Britain.
The Channel Tunnel already exists:
Proposed Channel bridges have, at various times, been dismissed as possible threats to navigation. (The Dover Strait, at the Channel's narrowest point, is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, currently used by over 400 commercial vessels a day, according to the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency.) And even when the political will existed to build a crossing, coming up with the money was always a challenge.
The Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994, cost more than $10 billion to build, and was not heavily used at first, raising questions about whether it was worth the expense. But it now carries more than 10 million passengers and more than 20 million tons of freight annually.
Also at BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4, and CNBC.
(Score: 2) by tonyPick on Tuesday January 23 2018, @08:25AM (1 child)
Attempting to distract people isn't what makes him an idiot, it's his very public track record of expensive failures.
He's quite the example of a Very [blogspot.com] Stable [wordpress.com] Genius [dailymail.co.uk].
(Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Tuesday January 23 2018, @01:29PM
It's not his money he loses, he doesn't care that he gets stuck on zip wires, or calls table tennis whiff-whaff, or whatever PR stunt he pulls to get the headlines. None of that is the sign of an idiot.
From what I can tell unlike Ken Livingston's bendy buses, the boris bikes are quite successful (and while Livingston had a part to play in those, they are associated with Boris). Garden Bridge less so, but Boris managed to push the blame for that onto Sidik Khan
He plays the media very well, he keeps the spotlight on him, he makes a fortune, and he got to a stones throw from PMship.
His main mistake was probably backing brexit. He wanted to lose, narrowly, then use it as an excuse to unite the tory party on both sides. He cocked that up.