How many ministers will be using the Zil – sorry, Games – Lanes during the Olympics? The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said this morning that the lanes would be used on a flexible basis, and that ministers would stick to public transport.
‘The approach is that where possible they will use public transport,’ he said, but he added that ‘operational or security reasons’ might mean ministers are forced to use the lanes. ‘Operational’ and ‘security’ offer a conveniently wide range of situations in which someone might have cause to hop in the ministerial car and zoom down a clear road, including the tube being too rammed with tourists for a minister to make his or her meeting on time.
One interesting stat handed out by Number 10 is that there are only 30 miles of the lanes – which are of course a requirement by Locog – in contrast to the 186 miles in Beijing and the 99 miles in Athens when those cities hosted the Olympics. The spokesman was also at pains to stress that the lanes will not be in use the whole time: only during periods of heavy traffic. These points provide a nice backing to the argument that the government is trying as much as possible not to ruin the lives of ordinary Londoners during the games period.
But ministers still need to beware of any Zil trips they plan on taking in the next few weeks. It would be unfortunate, wouldn’t it, if a servant of the people were snapped cruising past gridlocked traffic just to arrive at the beach volleyball in time…
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